Break the Ice
by WatchMist1412
Summary: Figure Skating AU After an accident Gray, a professional figure skater has to take some time off to heal and he's not enjoying it AT ALL.What he didn't expect was meeting Juvia, a swimmer tired of her career, even less ending up as her coach Lucy, an aspiring figure skater, came to realize it was a whole new experience with a pink haired weirdo and his equally weird cat by her side
1. Chapter 1

Gray had been sitting alone in this empty room for a while now. He had left the skater's waiting room with a lame excuse to find the most abandoned part of the building to sit alone with his misery. So there he was… sitting with his head clasped tightly between his hands.

It hurt so much! Why did he have to go and get sick on the Final of the skating competition? Curse his luck!

He had taken a painkiller half an hour ago but it didn't seem to work. The pain had yet to leave him. He couldn't even stand having the lights open because the light hurt his eyes. He was so pathetic.

"Popsicle? Where are you? It's almost your turn." a familiar voice was heard from the corridor. Of course Gildarts would send him to look for Gray. He figured he couldn't stay in his little room for long but the skater was hoping for a bit more peace and quiet. Well as much peace as he could have with his head feeling like a thousand needles are poking it. He hadn't been gone for that long though, had he?

Gray sighed and slowly got up, "I'm here flame brain! Why do you have to make such a fuss?"

A pink colored head poked out from the door, "Found you! Why are you here anyway? Gildarts made me look all over the place for you. And what's up with the lights?" Natsu commented while looking around the room.

"I don't know… they must be broken." He lied

"Of course you found the darkest place to sit and brood. But hey, don't worry, if you want to chicken out of the competition I understand. It's natural to be intimidated by my awesome performance!"

"Yeah you wish!" Gray smirked. Even this little motion made his head pound. "That would be your only way of winning"

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that."

Loud clapping could be heard from the distance. The previous skater must have finished his free skate.

"That's my cue." said the pink-haired skater "I'll definitely beat you ice princess!" he shouted as he left the room.

"Yeah in your dreams!" Gray shouted after him. He took a big breath. He could do this, he had practice the routine a hundred times. Even if his head was hurting he couldn't let it destroy his efforts.

It was going to be alright. He had memorized the routine by heart. It was going to be alright.

/ - / - / - / - /

"That was an amazing performance by Natsu Dragneel! The score will be…"

Gray tuned out the announcer's voice. He had to focus. His head felt like it would burst into pieces any moment now.

"Next up… Gray Fullbuster! Skating to "Frozen Soul"

Gray took off to the ice and took his starting position. He was feeling dizzy. Were the lights always this bright?

The music started playing and Gray mechanically started his free skate.

A little headache wouldn't bring him down.

He prepared himself for the first jump, a triple loop.

Perfect. He could hear the audience clapping.

Slide left, then right and then a quadruple flip.

Just before his feet begun to leave the ice, he felt lightheaded. He then knew he messed up badly.

Gray hit the ice roughly, not managing to break his fall. He felt a jabbing pain coming from his leg. His head was spinning even worse than before.

He felt his vision blur. He tried to get up but he didn't succeed. He should get up, he had to finish the skate.

He started to lose focus of the world around him. He could faintly hear the announcer's voice. "There seems to be a problem! Fullbuster isn't getting up!"

Why was everything spinning?

He couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. Why did they have to be so loud? He felt like the noise only added to his headache. He just wanted to sleep.

Then everything went black.

/ - / - / - /

Natsu stared at his friend's sleeping form.

Yes, he did consider him a close friend despite their constant fighting. They didn't really hate each other though they would never admit that.

Gray was in the hospital after a nasty fall. Apparently, the idiot had a fever but refused to tell anyone and decided to compete and didn't that go wonderfully. That's why he was covered in bandages and unconscious.

Natsu had rushed to the hospital with Gildarts, their coach, and now here he was waiting for his sleeping rink mate to wake up while Gildarts talked to the doctor.

He heard the door opening behind him and he turned to see Erza, a longtime friend of theirs and a fellow skater.

"I came as soon as I could. How is he?"

"He's sleeping like a log." Natsu gestured to Gray's sleeping form "Gildarts is still talking with the doctor."

Erza sighed "Right before I forget" she reached for her bag and pulled out a gold medal "This is yours. The judges gave it to me after you fled the rink, they were really pissed that the gold medalist left before the award ceremony." She offered him the medal.

Natsu stared at her extended arm for a moment "I don't want it."

"Natsu…"

"I don't deserve it! If I'm going to win gold I should win it fair and square! Not when that idiot went and got injured!"

He knew it wasn't his fault that Gray was in the hospital but he couldn't help but feel guilty. He should have noticed something was off. He should have noticed… then none of this would have happened.

"Who are you calling an idiot flame brain?" said a weak voice

"Gray you're awake! How are you feeling? Is anything hurting?" the redhead was never calm in these situations.

"Relax Erza. I don't think I'm in a critical condition" Gray tried to lift himself from the bed but failing.

"I should go find a doctor. Wait here!" Erza fled the room.

"It's not like I could go anywhere." murmured Gray.

"Nice to see you haven't lost your humor" said Natsu dryly.

/ - / - / - / - /

Gray was sitting in his hospital bed alone. He had sent Natsu, Erza and Gildarts home. They insisted of staying but Gray needed some time alone to process what happened.

"Damn it!" Gray hit his hand on the bedside table from frustration.

According to his doctor he had badly injured his knee. He also hit his head in the fall but thankfully, he avoided a concussion.

He had to wear a cast for seven weeks and he will be walking with crutches. Even after his leg would be healed and he could take out the cast, he would have to wear a knee brace and start physical therapy.

Fortunately, he wouldn't have a permanent problem but he couldn't participate in competitions for a long time. He couldn't even walk without help at the moment, let alone skate.

Gray's hand started trembling. He tried to force himself to calm down. His lips tightened with frustration. How did he manage to screw up his life so badly?

Gray let out a shaky laugh, "I guess I really am an idiot."

/ - / - / - / - /

When Gray was preparing for a competition a month felt like a week.

Now a month of staying in his house to heal felt like a year.

He wasn't completely alone though. Erza, Natsu and Gildarts visited him regularly as did some of his other friends. Even Gramps, the owner of the Fairy Tail ice rink, came to visit sometimes.

He wasn't alone yet he felt empty inside.

He couldn't laugh with his heart and even bickering with Natsu wasn't the same. Not that he'd let the flame brain win their fights.

Gray missed skating. He missed the feeling of his skates cutting through the ice. The cold on his skin and dancing with the music. Feeling free…

He missed it terribly.

/ - / - / - / - / - /

Seven weeks had passed since the day of the accident and Gray would be finally able to take off the blasted cast. The thing was really getting on his nerves.

He had to use crutches to move around and he even had to swallow his pride and ask for help a number of times. Bathing was an absolute nightmare.

"What do you mean there's a problem?"

"Calm down Mr. Fullbuster. It's nothing that can't be fixed with time and physiotherapy. You'll just need a little more recovery time than I first expected. If you follow my instructions and be careful with straining your leg there shouldn't be a problem."

Gray shut his eyes "Skating… what about ice skating. When will I be able to start again?"

"Let's see… if you do physiotherapy and watch out for your leg it should be about six to eight weeks. After that schedule an appointment with me and we'll see."

"That much? Can't it be sooner?"

"Not if you want to cause serious damage where it didn't exist."

"Alright…"

He just had to wait. Wait a little longer.

/ - / - / - / - /

It was finally the day he could skate again. He got permission from his doctor and as long as he wouldn't strain his leg it was alright. He could stay on the ice only for a little bit but it was better than nothing.

Gray opened the doors of the ice rink center and his practice rink for many years.

Fairy Tail was Magnolia's local ice rink and one of the best in the country. It was consisted of 4 separate ice rinks; a medium sized one for visitors and 2 private ones for the professional skaters to practice. There was a lake too, which was used as a rink during the winter. That attracted many visitors not only on winter but on spring too when the cherry blossom trees bloomed. Fairy Tail was a pretty famous spot after all.

Gray usually trained with Erza and Natsu in their own rink. It wasn't theirs but they booked the same one every single time,

He went in and stared at the place. He had really missed it. He noticed Natsu was already on the ice. The pink haired man didn't notice him, too engrossed in his skating. He had to practice his new routine after all.

Natsu executed a perfect triple loop.

Gray felt a little jealous of his rink mate. Not that he would ever admit it. He wasn't allowed to do jumps for now. If ever…

He shook his head. He could go back to his usual routine soon. He would just have to be patient.

Gray tied on his skates and stepped into the ice.

A blue haired woman was sitting on a couch with her legs pressed against her torso. She stared intensely to the TV with the remote clasped tightly between her hands.

The announcer's voice could be clearly heard in the silent room. "Gray Fullbuster's fans are devastated since their idol hasn't completely recovered from his unfortunate fall on the last final and it seems that he won't be taking part in any competition this year. Now moving on…"

The screen turned black and the announcer was cut off. The room was enveloped in silence.

"Gray-sama."

/ - / - / - / - /

 **Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed me and ruby's collab fic. Just you wait we got a lot in** **store for you! Tell us what you thought of the first chapter, we look forward to reading your reviews!**

 **IMPORTANT NOTE! If you're not interested in reading the gruvia part of the story you can jump right into chapter 4 where the nalu part starts. You won't be missing anything from the nalu side of the story.**

 **You can find us on tumblr, our blogs are** **watchmist1412. tumblr. com** **and** **bloodredruby. tumblr. com just remove the spaces. Also our art blogs are** **watchmist-art. tumblr. com and** **bloodredrubymoon. tumblr .com** **We have made a couple of fanarts for the fic that you can find under the tag _"break the ice"._**

 **See you next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

"3…2…1…GO"

Juvia dove into the pool and her vision was filled with the faded blue of the water. She felt the familiar buzzing in her ears and the warm water on her skin.

She had done this so many times by now.

Water was her element. Not many could surpass her in speed and duration while in the water. That's why she had so many medals at home.

She had done this so many times.

Juvia didn't know how much more she could stand doing a sport she disliked. Oh, yes. A professional swimmer and many times gold medalist who disliked swimming. What a great combination!

Well… it wasn't that she disliked swimming in general. It was mostly the competitions and endless practicing that bored her out of her mind.

Juvia touched the wall of the pool and pushed her body on the opposite direction.

Since she was a little girl and her parents discovered her talent for swimming she had been dragged from competition to competition and practices every day to become who she is now. It didn't help that both of her parents were famous gold medalists in international swimming competitions. That meant even more pressure for her to follow their footsteps.

Juvia touched the wall of the other side of the pool and stopped. She looked up to see an arm extended towards her. She took it and she pushed herself out of the pool.

Her coach smiled at her and gave her a towel. Juvia took it and pulled off the protective googles to wipe her face of the pool water. That thing was really starting to disgust her.

"Great time Lockser! I swear you're getting faster every day! You're going for the gold once more this year! As expected from the Lockser family."

There it is again. She was always being compared to them.

"Juvia will try her best!" She tried to sound excited but it came out so forced and fake. She just couldn't be excited for things like this anymore.

"Atta girl! You're free to go now, that's enough practice for today."

"Juvia will be off then. Goodbye!" she turned to leave the room.

"Bye kid!" she heard from behind her.

Juvia was glad it was finally over. These days practicing felt even more like a chore she had to do. Needless to say she wasn't enjoying it at all. Not anymore.

She loved being in the water, she really did, but not on a competitive level. She could spend hours in the sea just floating in the water or diving and exploring the seabed. There she could be free! There were no medals to win, no chlorine in her skin and no expectations to meet. She could just be herself, something that she found hard to be these days.

Juvia desperately wanted to quit everything. She wanted to stop going to practice almost every day of the week and just stay home or go outside. She would prefer anything but going to the pool again.

But she couldn't do that. Her parents, her coach everyone expected her to continue her career and keep placing first, follow her parent's footsteps. And she would just do that. It wasn't like she had another alternative.

The blue haired swimmer opened the door of her apartment. She hadn't realized when she arrived being lost in her thoughts. The apartment was pretty close to the pool where she trained so it was a quick walk from there.

"Juvia is back!" she shouted as she closed the door and locked it.

A tall man with long black hair and piercings all over his face poked his head from a room. "Hey rain woman! How was practice?" he asked

"It was ok… just like every other one."

The man stared at her "You know you don't have to lie to me. If something is wrong you can talk to me about it."

"Everything is fine, really! Juvia promises."

Gajeel knew her better than anyone. He had been her best friend since middle school. Their personalities were complete opposites and no one expected them to become friends but it had strangely worked out and they had managed to form a strong bond. He was like the brother she never had.

After 'Phantom Lord' Juvia's previous training center had been shut down due to the manager's debts, she was forced to move to another city with a suitable pool. Her coach and parents decided that Magnolia was the right place for that.

Gajeel decided to follow her to study in a workshop as a mechanic. That way she wasn't alone on a new city and she had someone to share the rent with.

He sighed "Fine, if you say so. I'll have you know that I'm not convinced though."

"How is your project going?" Juvia tried to redirect the subject

Her friend's eyes sparkled. He was always excited to talk about his work. "I'm almost finished. I'll probably have it done by tomorrow." said her roommate proudly.

"That's great! Juvia will leave you to finish then."

"And you should go get some rest."

"Juvia's not a child! She can take care of herself."

"Yeah right! If I leave you alone you'll just overwork yourself. Do you want me to remind you what happened the last time?" he grinned

"That's in the past, Juvia is older and wiser now."

"It was 6 months ago!"

"Exactly, in the past." She smiled sheepishly.

"Seriously though promise me you'll be careful."

"Yes, yes." She said as she went into her bedroom. Juvia opened the lights of her small room and let her bag slide off her shoulder to fall on the floor. The room was quite simple. It consisted of a small bed, a TV, an office desk and a closet. The walls had a light blue colour and were almost completely covered by posters. The posters varied in size and some of them even seemed handmade but every one of them had the same person depicted on them. All of them were of the same black haired man whether he was alone or in a group picture.

She walked towards her closet, took a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. She had taken a shower in the pool but it wasn't enough. She let the hot water take away the feeling of chlorine in her skin and relax her muscles. After finishing she headed to her room again and collapsed into her bed.

Juvia felt something crumple under her cheek. She sat up and pulled a flyer from her pillow. She had forgotten about it. The flyer had Fairy Tail written in bright colors and sparks all over it. It definitely caught her attention.

Fairy Tail was Magnolia's local ice skating rink and possibly the most popular in Fiore. Juvia had picked up the flyer in hopes of visiting the rink. She checked the time on her phone, 19:30. It wasn't too late and she didn't feel tired. Maybe a visit to the ice rink would clear her head.

Juvia had never been into ice skating before. It wasn't that she hated it, she just didn't know much about it and had never tried it before. She didn't have time for other hobbies after all, she had to focus on her swimming. She respected the sport but never felt the need to try it. However, as much impossible as she thought it was, ice skating or more accurately figure skating became a big part of her life.

It all started when the figure skating nationals were broadcasted live on TV. Juvia didn't have anything better to do and the other channels weren't showing anything interesting so she decided to give a chance to the figure skating sport. It could turn out interesting.

Apparently, it was the turn of the man who placed first in the previous competition, Juvia didn't catch his name. He was tall, with spiky jet black hair and what seemed like a toned figure. He was admittedly handsome but at the moment he didn't seem very special.

And as it seemed he wasn't very professional either. He looked like he was arguing with a pink haired man and they were butting heads. A red haired woman had to come and hit them both in their heads to separate them. They immediately hugged and pretended to make up while still hitting each other behind their backs.

Juvia chuckled. How could they be so childish and carefree? They were in the middle of a competition. Though she had to admit they were a bit amusing.

She was tempted to close the TV or change the channel at that point but the black haired man skated into the middle of the ice. What was his name again? Gary…no, that's not it… Maybe Gabe! No that didn't seem right at all, well it didn't matter anyway. It wasn't like she would see him again.

However, when the camera zoomed on the skater Juvia was taken aback. A few seconds ago he was goofing off with his friends but now he was completely focused and his gaze was cold and serious. He was like a different person.

Then the music started playing and Juvia's world was turned upside down. The choreography was beautiful and each movement was in sync with the song. The skater's movements were fluid and each and every one of them was precise and calculated. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Juvia's eyes were glued to the screen. It was like a magic spell had been cast upon her making her a prisoner of this skating routine. When the music stopped and the skater took his final pose it was like the spell had been broken and she woke up from her daze.

The audience started clapping wildly and throwing roses on the ice. The man grinned and waved at them satisfied with his performance. He then got off the ice and headed to a small area with someone that Juvia guessed was his coach.

The judges announced his score and Juvia finally learned his name. Gray Fullbuster.

She searched videos of his old programs and watched him perform for hours, not even one of them failing her expectations. She researched figure skating so she could understand the point system and the competitions better and she ended up learning the rules by heart. As Juvia got involved more and more into the ice skating world she realized she had fallen in love with the sport.

She begun watching other skaters and kept track of the competitions and their scores. All of their programs were beautiful but in her eyes no one could surpass Gray Fullbuster. Some of them came pretty close though.

At some point, the girl decided to try skating herself at her local ice rink. She was terrible at it at first. She kept clinging on the sidebars for the whole visit and she moved at a snail's pace. It wasn't as easy as she thought after all.

Then she decided to go visit again. This time Juvia bravely let go of the bars on the sides of the rink and tried skating out in the open. She fell right on her first try. The swimmer soon found out it was hard to keep her balance on the ice.

She couldn't count the times she slipped and fell right on her butt. Her knees just kept shaking and she would end up on the ice yet again. Then she decided to try to gain some speed so that way she wouldn't stay on one spot and fall over and over again. That was an admittedly bad decision. Once she started moving she couldn't stop and she hit many innocent people on her way only to bump face first into the sidebars. That… was an interesting experience.

But she didn't give up and she went again and again on the small ice rink in her free time, slowly and steady she got the hang of it. She even got protective gear to guard her from her numerous falls. She even tried some of her favourite programs, of course with significantly less difficulty. She couldn't jump right into the hard moves but she could manage the beginner ones. She had watched the programs so many times she had almost memorized them in her mind so is with watching a lot of tutorials and practicing whenever she had time she could sloppily skate to some of them. At least she didn't fall on the ice that often anymore.

She tried to persuade Gajeel to go skate with her once but he repeatedly refused. He said he didn't trust anything but the ground under his feet. However, he did turn up on the ice rink a couple of times to watch her skate.

It was like a whole world had been opened up in front of her and Gray Fullbuster was the one that showed her the way. He may not even know her, but she was grateful to him for bringing ice skating into her life, for bringing color in her dull world.

Needless to say she was devastated when she saw his accident on the last figure skating nationals. It really hurt her to see her longtime idol falling apart.

That day Juvia had called Gajeel in the middle of the night crying and he scolded her for hours after that for making him worry. Juvia was never one to contain her strong emotions. She just wished her Gray would get better soon.

The blue haired girl felt so lucky that the area her coach decided to move her team was in Magnolia. Not only did it have Fairy Tail but it was the hometown of none other than Gray.

Sometimes she daydreamed about actually meeting the man. He would fall in love at first sight with her and ask her on a date and it would be the most romantic thing ever and and…

Juvia always stopped herself. Everyone dreamt about meeting their idol but that didn't mean it might actually happen. She didn't even know if he had been completely healed yet to go to the ice again. Well… nobody knew anything about the matter, she researched a lot. He and his coach were being really secretive about it.

 **/ - / - / - /**

Juvia stared at the building complex in front of her. It was huge! She did expect Fairy Tail to have big facilities but that was beyond what she was used to, compared to the small and decadent rink she first used. The leaflet said the complex was constructed of 3 ice rinks, a small gym for warming up and it even has an open area with benches and a small cafeteria for the visitors to relax. It even had a lake there! The lake was frozen in the winter and apparently it was used as another public ice rink.

It was the place of her dreams! She hoped there wouldn't be many people visiting at this hour so she could have more space for herself. It was a little difficult to practice with a lot of people around her.

She walked inside through the automatic glass doors and looked for the reception. She spotted the receptionist in a small desk a few meters away and approached her. The woman had white hair and blue eyes and she had familiar characteristics. Juvia couldn't figure it out but she was almost sure she had seen the receptionist somewhere before.

Once the woman noticed Juvia she smiled kindly at her "Hello, welcome to Fairy Tail! How can I help you?"

"Hi… umm… Juvia is looking for the ice rinks."

"Of course! Have you booked a rink?"

"No Juvia is just visiting."

"I see… you can go to rink 2V. Is it your first time here?"

"Yes."

"Well I hope you will enjoy your stay! Go to the room right there to pick up your skates if you don't have your own."

"Thank you." Juvia headed to the direction the woman pointed her and choose a pair of skates in her size. Then she went out to find her ice rink.

As she was walking down the corridor she passed in front of the private rinks. One of them had the door slightly opened and she could faintly see movement from that little gap. Juvia would lie if she said she wasn't curious to see the person skating. She hadn't had the opportunity to watch a professional skater up close so naturally she wanted to take a peek at the skater.

She knew it wasn't nice to peek on strangers but if they didn't see her there would be no harm. She would just take a quick look and then leave, she promised herself.

Juvia slowly opened the door a little wider, just enough that she could see clearly, careful as not to make any noise. Then she saw him.

She couldn't figure out his characteristics clearly as he was too far away. All the detail she could make out was his spiky black hair. The man moved elegantly in the ice like it was second nature to him. He danced with no music on but Juvia felt like she could hear the song through his movements.

He was amazing! Juvia wondered if he was someone she knew.

The man moved on to do a sit spin lowering his body down. In the middle of the spin his leg wobbled and he fell ungracefully to the ice.

Juvia winced. She expected him to get up and continue skating. That's what everyone does when they fall on the ice from what Juvia had seen. It wasn't uncommon even for the top skaters. However, seconds went by and the man was still on the ice looking almost defeated.

Without a second thought Juvia quickly put on her skates and approached the fallen man. "Umm… are you alright?" she carefully asked

The man got startled and turned around to look at the source of the voice and for the first time Juvia could see his characteristics. She let out a small gasp in realization. No way, it couldn't be. She must have been dreaming. Yeah, that's it. She went home from practice and collapsed in her bed falling asleep instantly. Everything was fine, it was just a dream. She dreamt about meeting him all the time.

"Hey, are you listening to me?"

The man's voice brought her out of her thoughts. It wasn't a dream! She was actually in front of her idol. Who probably thought she was pretty weird after interrupting his practice and silently staring at him. Awesome…

Quick, she had to say something "Huh?" Great job Juvia! You made it so much better!

Now Gray was starting to look a little irritated "I asked what you are doing here. This is a private practice area. Did you come into the wrong rink?"

"Ahh no… ummm… Juvia was just… she just saw you skating and she swears she didn't mean to spy on you or to interrupt your practice! Juvia's really sorry!"

"Whoa slow down… you didn't do anything bad. Just… could you please leave now? I need to go back to practicing."

"Are you alright? Juvia saw you falling down and she thought you were hurt."

"Oh you saw that." Gray rubbed the back of his head. "That was pretty embarrassing, forget about it. I wasn't hurt anyway."

"Ok… are you going to start competing again?" she asked innocently. That question had been bugging her for quite some time now.

Gray pressed his lips together to form a small line "I don't know. Look… I don't want to be rude but could you please leave now?"

Juvia panicked internally. She was so stupid! Why did she have to go and ask that? It was obvious it was a sensitive matter. None of this happened in her fantasies. She should apologize. No, she should ask for an autograph and then leave.

Gray stared at her expectantly. Oh no! Now he was annoyed and tired of her! She should just silently leave and drown in self-pity after. But what if she never saw him again? What if this was a one-time chance and she blew it up? She had to think of something to fix this. She had to find a way to meet him again. So she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

"Please, would you be Juvia's coach?"

And that made the situation so less awkward…

 **/-/-/-/-/**

 **~Bonus~**

It was late. Late even to Gajeel's standards, and that was saying something. He should be at his bed right now not at his workshop.

It wasn't his fault! The man had a reputation of losing track of time when working and that is what happened yet again. He wanted to finish the project he had been working on and by the time he looked at his watch it had been 4 am.

He had been scolded many times for this habit mainly from his best friend, Juvia. That was pretty ironic since his friend couldn't even follow her own advice and ended up overexerting herself.

The black haired man tried to repress a yawn failing to do so. He should really get going now. If he stayed anymore there was a high probability of him ending up asleep in his desk and that wasn't a comfortable place to wake up to.

Suddenly, the familiar tune of his ringtone filled the once silent room. Gajeel glared at the small device. Who could it be at this late hour? If it was an advertising company Gajeel was ready to give them a piece of his mind.

He reached for his phone and looked at the caller ID. It was Juvia. He repressed another yawn and accepted the call. "Juvia, do you have any idea what time it is? What is it?"

The other line was silent but he could hear faint sniffling. Now he was a little worried. "Juvia? Are you ok?"

"It's… it's…" now the woman had starting lightly sobbing and Gajeel could only make out bits and pieces from her words.

"Gra…ma… fell and… broken… critical."

Now he was really worried. "Juvia calm down, can you tell me what's going on. Did you get hurt?" he started looking for his coat in case he needed to go to help her.

"N… no Juvia's fine. But… but Gray-sama isn't!"

Gajeel stopped dead at his tracks. "What?"

"Gray-sama was doing his free skate but then he tried to do a quadruple flip but he slipped and fell and he wouldn't get up and then he fainted and they moved him to a hospital and what is going to happen now? What if it's serious? What if he won't skate ever again? What if…"

"Wait, wait." Gajeel cut her off. "Gray as the skater you have been obsessed over with for months?"

"Yes!"

The mechanic took a big breath. "Are you telling me you called me at 4 in the morning crying your heart out all for a stupid skater? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I actually thought you might have gotten hurt! You seriously have been crying for something so stupid?"

There was a moment of silence and Gajeel knew at that moment he had messed up. He didn't want to sound so harsh and he knew his friend was sensitive. In his defense he was sleep-deprived and the woman really worried him for no reason.

So he had managed to make the situation worse and Gajeel spent the next hour trying to calm Juvia down, who had turned into a sobbing mess again. He kept reassuring her that her idiot idol was going to be alright and that he wasn't mad at her, he was just tired.

Gajeel swore that day that if he ever met that 'Gray-sama' he owed him a punch in the face.

 **/ - / - / - / - /**

 **Hey guys, we hope you enjoyed the new chapter and the little bonus! We look forward to reading your thoughts about it! Thank you for the faves, follows and reviews, we appreciate all of them!**

 **If you noticed we now have a cover for the fic! It was supposed to be put out with the first chapter but something went wrong with the uploading. The lineart was drawn by Ruby and I did the coloring. You can find the full picture in our tumblrs, as well as more fanart for the fic in the tag "break the ice". We also drew a scene from the bonus in this chapter that you can find there too! We turned it into a meme with all the phrases we thought for it.**

 **This chapter was very fun to write especially the bonus! Hmm I wonder how Gray will respond...**

 **See you next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

Juvia was a bit impulsive. Alright she was a lot impulsive. She had the habit of saying what was on her mind and sometimes that wasn't a good thing. She also tended to overthink situations and jump quickly into conclusions. Those two combined resulted in embarrassing situations for Juvia that she would prefer not to think about.

"Please, would you be Juvia's coach?"

That was a pretty good example.

Why did she have to say that? Just why?! She didn't even want an ice skating coach it was only a hobby. Gray-sama would think she's such a weird person! She had to fix that immediately.

"Your… coach?" The poor man seemed really confused.

No, that's not it! "Yes!" Damn it Juvia!

Why is she continuing it? The only thing she had to do was apologize, explain that didn't mean to say that and everything will be fine. Then she could go home and drown in self-pity for the rest of the day. It was that simple.

Gray run his hand through his hair possibly even more confused about the whole situation. "Look… Juvia right? I don't know where this came from but I have to refuse. I don't even know you, I can't start coaching you out of the blue! You should go find someone else."

"Juvia doesn't want anyone else!"

That was partially true. Juvia only wanted someone to teach her how to properly skate. The idea of Gray Fullbuster teaching her skating was actually quite appealing… NO. She couldn't think like that, this is a terrible idea. She knew that yet the words were flying out of her mouth.

"I'm still a competitive skater just because I have to take a break doesn't mean I'll retire. I can't start coaching let alone for a complete stranger I need to focus on my own career!"

"Then only until you start skating again."

"Excuse me?"

"Coach Juvia until you start competing again."

"What? No!"

"But Juvia can…"

"NO! No way, this stops now! I don't have time to play around and coach you I have better things to do. If you want to get a coach that much find someone else. I can't do this and that's my final answer." Gray's voice was getting louder with every word.

Juvia's eyes widened. Now she'd done it. She had actually managed to make him mad with her ridiculous demands. The man must be really fed up with her. She felt her eyes sting a little. No, not again! Did she have to be so sensitive every time someone raised their voice? Now Gray would think she's a crybaby too!

"Juvia is sorry." She managed to let out, her voice trembling "Juvia didn't mean to be so rude, she'll leave you alone now. Juvia is sorry for disturbing your practice." She turned around and hastily headed to the edge of the ice rink.

"Ah, wait a second!" Juvia didn't stop to look back. If she stayed any longer she might really start crying from all the tension.

She then hurriedly took off her skates and rushed out of the skating area. That was enough embarrassment for one day she didn't need more. That wasn't how she imagined their first meeting at all! She just had to ruin everything with her stupid mouth.

Juvia ran all the way to the reception where she found the white haired woman from before reading a magazine.

The receptionist looked up hearing Juvia's footsteps. "Oh, hello again. Is there a problem I can help you with?" She said with the everlasting smile.

"No, no everything is great! Juvia just wanted to return the skates."

The woman raised her eyebrows "You're finished already? But you just came in, is there something wrong?"

"No, just… something came up so Juvia has to leave. So… yeah." She finished awkwardly. She was never good at coming up with excuses.

"Alright then, you can leave them on the counter. I hope you enjoyed your visit, you can comeback whenever you want."

"Juvia will keep that in mind. Have a nice day!"

"Thank you, you too!"

Juvia walked fast reaching the exit door in a few seconds. She wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible and dive right into the comfort and warmth of her blankets. There she could drink a good cup of hot chocolate and forget that day ever happened. Yes that sounded like a good plan.

Why, just why did she have to go say that? Hello, you've never seen me before but could you be my coach? Yeah that's a completely natural thing to say! Stupid.

Well… it wasn't like Juvia hadn't thought about taking skating lessons before. She did enjoy ice skating considerably more than swimming. However since giving up her swimming career wasn't an option at the moment, and she could neither take up both of them at once, she gave up on the idea.

That didn't mean she couldn't fantasize about her and Gray skating together with romantic music on the background, staring into each other's eyes. Like that could ever happen.

 _Maybe you didn't try hard enough. Maybe you could make your dream come true._

No, she couldn't afford to think like that.

 _Maybe you can be friends. You can try again._

If she started to believe that…

 _Just one more time._

Juvia looked at the Fairy Tail building which she wanted to get away from.

She may really go back.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - /**

Gray stared at the marked surface of the ice in defeat. He couldn't get the sit spin right no matter how much he tried. It was all the blue haired girl's fault! After she interrupted his practice… well… it wasn't like he could do the spin before she came in, alhough that particular incident didn't help the situation.

The skater ruffled his hair in frustration. Who barges into someone else's practice and tells them to be their coach? Why did all the weird stuff always happen to him? Was he a disaster magnet or something?

And now he felt guilty about snapping on the poor girl. Her request was a bit unreasonable but Gray should have kept his calm, he recognizes his mistake. He could have just talked her out of this and make her understand why he wasn't able to do it. But he didn't.

In his defense he was tired from his practice and on top of that he was frustrated at himself for failing a number of times to do a basic sit spin. That girl, Juvia, had just come at the wrong time.

Gray had realized he was coming off as harsh and cold but before he had the chance to apologize the girl had fled off the room. He could swear he saw her eyes glistening before she left. That's perfect, now he could add making a girl cry to his daily achievements. What a gentleman.

If Natsu ever found out about this he would make fun of him for weeks. If Erza found out… he didn't want to think about that. The redhead was a good friend of his but she did tend to have a strong sense of justice. He didn't want to know how she would react to Gray making a girl cry. It wouldn't end up nice for him, that's for sure.

How did he manage to get himself into that situation again? Right… it was something about being a disaster magnet. He promised himself he would apologize if he ever sees her again. That would make a very awkward conversation.

Gray was now glaring at the ice like it was responsible for all of his problems. He figured it was time to stop that day's practice. It wasn't like he was making any progress. A break would be good for him. He will think things logically and he could get this whole situation out of his mind.

The black haired man reluctantly glided to the edge of the rink and pulled off his skates. He proceeded to put them in his backpack and walk slowly towards the exit door locking it on the process. He then turned to the reception area to drop the keys off to Mira.

As he was walking there's still a bit lot in his thoughts when he spotted a familiar blue from the corner of his eye. Gray froze on the spot and turned around to take a better look. And yes it was her. The object of his thoughts for the past 20 minutes.

The woman thankfully hadn't noticed him yet. She appeared to be… staring at the ground, 5 meters from the front door, with her brows furrowed like she was thinking. He observed her for a few seconds when she suddenly looked up.

Gray flinched, his mind immediately starting to think of things he could say to the girl when she noticed him. Then he realized he had been was standing behind a pillar so he was safe for the moment. But why did he have to hide again? He hadn't done anything wrong, she was the one who barged into the middle of his training. And he had yelled at her… which he was feeling very bad about. He didn't think he would meet her again that soon, he wasn't mentally prepared!

The figure skater curious of what the girl was doing hesitantly moved his head to take a better look at her. Juvia with a determined look was now towards the Fairy Tail building. Gray prepared himself; it was time to talk things out. However just before she reached the doors she sharply turned around on her heels and stared walking to the opposite direction. Not having walked 3 meters she changed her mind and headed to the front doors again only to pace back and forth the road as if she hadn't decided where she wanted to go.

After some time Gray carefully moved from his observation spot and walked to the reception desk where Mira had been watching the situation unfold.

"Has she been there for a long time?" He asked not bothering to clarify who he was referring to.

"Oh yes! She's been doing that for the last 10 minutes." She seemed amused by the whole situation. "Do you know her?"

"No. Yes. Maybe."

"Ohh interesting! Did she come here just to see you? She did leave pretty early…"

"What? Why would she…No! Whatever you're imagining let me stop you right there!"

"So why is it that you were hiding behind a pillar?"

Gray cursed inwardly. She saw that. "I wasn't hiding!" This was so embarrassing. "That was just a… very…umm…interesting pillar! Have you noticed the architecture of this place? It's pretty amazing!" He mentally slapped himself. Was that the best thing he had to say?

"Yes I have noticed. I'm glad you're appreciating the building." And now she was mocking him. Great!

"Now do you want to tell me what's going on?" Mira smiled innocently. That wasn't really a question.

Gray ruffled his hair in frustration "Nothing happened. She just accidentally saw me practicing and came into the rink. That's it."

He glanced at the girl in question who was now sitting on the front stairs hunched over. It seemed like she decided to wait.

"So… are you gonna go talk to her?"

The skater snapped out of his daze. "Why should I?" Because you were a jerk to her.

"Well, it looks like she's been waiting for someone and I'm almost certain that someone is you. My instinct never betrays me!" She exclaimed proudly.

"Should I remind you when your _instinct_ told you I had a crush on Erza?"

"That was one time." Mira waved him off. "Besides, why are you so scared to go talk to her anyway?"

"I'm not scared! I just… last time I saw her I may or may not have been a jerk to her." He mumbled

"That partly explains the hiding. I knew there was something going on! Is that why she looked so miserable when she came out?"

"She was miserable?" Gray was slightly panicking. Could the situation be worse than he imagined?

"She did seem like she wanted to get out us soon as possible, I didn't expect her to come back. Wait… did she confess to you?" the receptionist gasped. "Did you reject her, is that why you're so awkward?"

"Mira no! Well, I did reject her but not in the way you're thinking. Please don't jump into conclusions by yourself." Gray knew his friend had an overflowing imagination and was keen to make up ridiculous scenarios.

"Fine, don't tell me! You should really go talk to her though. I still don't know what happened but if you thought you were being rude you should go apologize."

Gray sighed in defeat "I know, I know! It's just that the situation is really bizarre and I don't know how to handle it."

"You won't know if you won't try." Mira softly pushed him to the exit. "Come on now, you can do it!"

"Alright, I can go by myself." He complained

"Good luck!"

Gray slowly approached the automatic doors which opened soundlessly not alarming the girl sitting down the stairs. He could do this. He just had to go explain the situation politely and apologize without making it worse. That was easy.

Once he stood behind her he cleared his throat to announce himself. Juvia surprised she turned around and she visibly stiffened.

"Gray-sama!"

Gray awkwardly raised his hand to greet her. "Hey."

They stared at each other silently for a few seconds Gray's hand still half raised. Realizing his position he swiftly put his hand in his pocket.

"Yeah, so…" He started again. "Sorry for earlier. I didn't mean to sound so rude to you. I was just having a bad day overall and I was very tired."

Juvia waved her hands around shaking her head "No, Gray-sama shouldn't apologize! Juvia's the one who made that unreasonable request! She shouldn't have interrupted your practice anyway."

"About that, I really can't coach you after all. I'm not the right person for the job and I'm pretty sure I will be terrible at it. It's a big responsibility."

"Juvia understands, she didn't mean to be so demanding. Juvia admires Gray-sama a lot and she was extremely happy to be able to meet him. Juvia should get going now…"

Gray didn't feel satisfied from their conversation. He couldn't let her leave like that. "Wait a moment! I can't be your coach but if you're interested in figure skating Fairy Tail can help you with that. You can go ask Mira for more information. Oh, Mira's the receptionist, she's really sweet she can help you with anything you need."

Juvia shook her head "Thank you for thinking of Juvia but she doesn't think she can go to professional figure skating. She didn't mean to ask Gray-sama to be her coach, it just slip of her tongue. Juvia is more interested in skating lessons."

"The rink offers lessons too! I can help you with that. Ah, if you want to of course." He corrected himself. "You can come to the rink sometime and I'll see what I can do."

"So you will help Juvia?" She asked hopefully

"Sure, I don't see why not. It wouldn't be much trouble, that's what the rink is for."

The woman broke to an ear splitting grin. "Juvia is very grateful! She will visit again tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow?"

"Is it a bad time?"

"No, I'll probably be in the rink the whole afternoon."

"Juvia will see you tomorrow then! Juvia is very excited for her first lesson!"

"Yeah see you later." He waved at her and turned back to the building.

That went surprisingly well! Juvia wasn't so bad after all. She seemed very happy at the end and Gray had managed to explain the situation properly. He felt proud of himself. He would talk to Cana later to put her into a skating class and everything will be sorted out.

"So… How did it go?" asked Mira excitedly once she saw Gray approaching.

"It was fine. I think I handled it pretty well."

"Did you apologize properly?"

"Of course I did! What am I, a child?"

"Hmm, sometimes I wonder."

"Mira!"

"Yeah, yeah I know. So what happened? She looked pretty happy at the end."

"Nothing much, she just said that she wanted skating lessons so I… Oh no" Realization hit him.

"What is it?"

"No, no, no, no, this can't be happening! Stupid!" He continued by hitting himself in the forehead.

"Gray you're not making any sense. Tell me so I can help you."

The skater turned to look at her with a horrified expression. "I think I offered her skating lessons."

Mira couldn't contain a snort of amusement. "That's it? Well good for you, you get to socialize a little."

"That's not the point! And I socialize just fine."

"Oh yeah? That's why in the past weeks you've closed in to yourself? I think this will be good for you."

"I'm pretty sure it won't be. First of all I just met her today, and secondly I have no idea how to teach someone."

"You won't know unless you try it. Besides are you sure you promised her lessons?"

"Well I…" Maybe he had panicked for nothing. "I'm not sure."

"Look, if she really meant you will teach her you can just give her one lesson. It will be good for you too to go over the basics and teaching them to someone else will make you understand it better. If you really don't want to you'll politely decline." She explained.

"I'm not sure if I want to…"

"It's your decision. Do whatever you think is best for you." Mira smiled brightly.

"Thanks. I think I'll get going now."

"I'll see you tomorrow. It's time for me to close the rink too."

Gray secured his backpack on his shoulder and exited the building. Tomorrow he would have to deal his problems, for now he just wanted to go home and get a good amount of sleep.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - /**

 **Hey guys, we hope you enjoyed the new chapter! We look forward to reading your thoughts about it! Again, thank you for all the faves, follows and reviews!**

 **We have been focusing on finishing the first gruvia part of the story so Lucy hasn't got the chance to appear yet. However you can expect a lot of nalu next chapter now that the gruvia introduction is finished! From then on the chapters will be divided more equally between the 2 pairings.**

 **On another note, the chapter was a little late because Ruby and I had been working on a nalu one-shot for the nalu fluff week called "Falling to Pieces". You can go check it out if you want, we're really happy with how it turned out!**

 **See you next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Are you absolutely sure you know the way?"

"Yes, we've already established this Levy!"

"I know… but are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

Lucy sighed. She was having the same conversation again and again since the day before. She loved her friend but sometimes she was a bit overprotective.

"Lev I'm sure. I've been in Magnolia for a few days now I think I can find my way. Besides you've made me memorize the map by heart, I'm not going to forget everything when I leave the house."

"Fine! Promise me you'll call if something's wrong?" She was almost pleading.

"Of course I'll call you, don't worry. I need to do this on my own."

"Call me when you finish too!"

"We live right next to each other. Once I get back I'll tell you everything, okay?" Lucy reassured her.

Levy pouted. "Okay, I guess you're right. Sorry, I'm just a little worried for you. Ah, not that I don't think you will succeed!"

Lucy playfully nudged her friend in the shoulder. "Hey, it's alright. I'm the one who should be anxious not you."

"I know that… leave all your worries to me and you go blow their minds with your awesomeness!"

Lucy let out a laugh. "Well I'll leave that to you then! I really should be going now."

"Right!" Levy rushed to unlock her apartment door. "Wait, did you take the leaflet with you?"

"Yes, it's in my bag. I don't think I'll need it though I've memorized the address."

"Right… okay. Good luck then, you'll do great." Levy flashed a grin and gave her a thumbs up.

"Thanks!" Lucy waved as she got down the stairs of the building. The elevator was fully functional but she lived only on the secondfloor and it would be a waste of energy and time. Besides, it was a good excuse for some exercise.

Lucy skipped the last two steps landing on the pavement with a huge grin on her face. It was finally happening! It was finally the day she could go to the place of her dreams! She would finally go to Fairy Tail!

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / -/**

Lucy realized she hadn't thought this through. All of her previous excitement had been slowly turning into anxiousness the closer she got to her destination. Now standing in front of the stairs leading up to the glass doors of the Fairy Tail building she was contemplating her decision to go inside.

What was she thinking? She should have been more prepared! She slowly realized she had no idea what to say and how to present herself. How was she supposed to approach the subject? _Oh hello, you haven't seen me since I was 5 and probably don't even remember me, but would you mind being my coach?_ Yeah, like that would work.

Lucy was regretting not taking Levy with her, at least she would have some emotional support and she clearly needed that. Maybe she could call her friend and talk to her for a little while! That would make her calm down more.

The blonde let her backpack slide from her shoulder and started looking for her phone when she stopped and closed the zipper again. She couldn't just call Levy like that. Not when she had given that brave speech of having to do this on her own and not needing any help. She just _had_ to open her big mouth and ruin herself.

Should she just leave and come back another day? No, she wasn't a coward, she wouldn't just give up! Besides Lucy had come all this way she should at least go inside.

Determined Lucy took one step forward. But what if the woman wasn't there? She hadn't made a previous appointment maybe she couldn't go in like that.

However, before the same traitorous thoughts get the chance to cloud her mind once again.

"Hey! Sorry to interrupt your inner turmoil but you know you're blocking the way, right?"

Lucy lost in her thoughts hadn't realized another person had shown up. She quickly turned around to face the source of the voice. The first thing she noticed about the man in front of her was his vibrant pink hair. It wasn't uncommon to find people with various colored hair on the streets but the particular shade was a little unusual. It strangely suited the man who was now cheerfully grinning at her. He seemed about her age and he wore a white scaled scarf around his neck.

Snapping out of her thoughts she responded "You know it's not polite to sneak up on people."

"Hey, I didn't mean to sneak up on you!" he defended himself "You are the weirdo staring at the building like you want to set fire to it."

"I'm not a weirdo! Also why would I want to set fire to the building?"

"I don't know… you were glaring at it pretty intensely." He squinted "What are your intentions?"

"I'm not a pyromaniac, okay? Why would you think that?" said Lucy frustrated "And I wasn't glaring, I was just thinking."

"I know, I was just teasing you." He grinned.

 _This man is unbelievable._ Lucy thought

"So are you going to come in?"

"What?"

"I mean, if you want to glare at the entrance door all day, I won't judge. I don't think you came for that though. Hey, maybe you can come glare at the inside, its warmer too!"

"I TOLD YOU, I WAS JUST THINKING!"

"Okay, don't shout you weirdo."

"And quit calling me a weirdo!"

"Fine, fine… weirdo." He whispered

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" The man hurriedly headed to the automatic doors and stopped right before he got it. "Come on, it's getting really cold out there." He then went inside.

Lucy followed the pink haired man inside the considerably warmer building. She looked around and took in her new surroundings. The lobby was colorful with plants all over the place and comfortable looking couches in the middle. Overall it seemed like a pretty welcoming place.

"So… is it your first time here?" asked the pink haired boy

"Well, yeah."

"I would help you out but I'm running pretty late, sorry."

"It's fine! I can find my way by myself."

"If you want any help go ask Mira." He pointed to a white haired woman reading a magazine behind a desk "She's really nice, don't worry."

"Okay, thank you." Lucy smiled. He wasn't so bad after all.

"No problem! I'll see you around, weirdo!" he waved at her as he sprinted to a corridor.

Never mind. "HEY! What did I say about-" it was too late, the man had already disappeared.

That whole encounter had been really bizarre though Lucy found herself least she didn't feel as anxious anymore. Talking with that weird man had cleared her head and lifted her worries without her noticing.

Lucy turned to look at the woman behind the desk who she assumed was the receptionist and made her way towards her. She tried to get the woman to notice her presence thinking she was engrossed in her magazine but before she could say anything the woman looked up and smiled sweetly.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

Taking a closer look at the woman's face she had something familiar about her that Lucy couldn't place yet. Well, she had other things to worry about.

"Hi, I am… looking for Aquarius, can I talk to her?"

 _Please say yes, please say yes!_

"Yes of course! I think she's in the office. Take the stairs and it's the first door at the front."

Lucy sighed in relief. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem!" the woman smiled again. "Oh wait a moment! I think I should warn you, she just had a fight with her boyfriend so she's a little… grumpier than usual."

Lucy gulped. "I'll keep that in mind, then."

That was not good, that was not good at all! From what she remembered from the woman, she always had a bad temper. That definitely did not make things easier.

Lucy walked up to the direction she was pointed at and finally stood in front of the door that she hoped was the right one.

 _You can do this Lucy, you didn't come all this way for nothing!_ She motivated herself. She took a big breath and knocked hesitantly on the door.

And then there was… nothing. There was no response! No sound from the inside that indicated someone had heard her or even if there was someone inside.

Lucy determined knocked again. Maybe she wasn't heard the first time

"Go away!" said an angry muffled voice from the inside.

"Wait, hear me out I-"

"I don't care, I can't deal with you right now."

"Please let me in, I have something important to tell you!"

Lucy was met once again by silence.

"I know you're inside!" Lucy knocked once again on the door not wanting to give up. "I came all this way to talk to you and I won't leave until you give me a chance."

Suddenly the door opened and Lucy stumbled catching herself before she fell down. Then she was met with the very angry gaze of a blue haired woman now blocking the entrance.

"You've got some nerve kid, what do you want?" she glared.

Lucy stared straight back at the woman not losing her newfound confidence. "I am-"

"No, wait, don't say anything." Aquarius cut her off once again "I'm in a very bad mood, come back tomorrow or something."

She started closing the door but Lucy put her foot between the door and the wall stopping her from doing that. "Please hear me out! My name is Lucy Heartfilia." She managed to say as she tried to stop her from closing the door.

At that Aquarius loosened her grip on the door allowing it to open a bit more. "Layla's brat?"

"Yeah."

Aquarius closed her eyes seemingly contemplating a decision. "Fine, come in!" she finally caved in "Make it short though."

The woman stepped away from the entrance allowing Lucy to enter the spacy room.

"So what is Layla's kid doing here?" she cut straight to the point.

"Well, I was in town and I thought I would come visit you." Lucy tried to slowly make her way to the point.

"Yeah, that's nice and all. Now tell me why you're really here. I haven't seen you since you were a shrimp why did you decide to come now?"

There goes Lucy's plan. She prepared herself, now was the time. "I want you to become my coach."

The seconds of silence that followed her statement felt like hours. Then finally Aquarius squinted her eyes and broke the silence. "Are you being serious right now?"

"Yes, I want to take up professional skating."

Aquarius sighed "Of course you do, what did I expect from Layla's brat? And you want _me_ to guide you in that I suppose."

"Please, you're the only one I could think of! It has been my dream since I was a child. I've been practicing for years, I promise I won't disappoint you!"

"And does your father know about this?"

Lucy winced. She knew this was going to be brought up at some point. "My father, he… He doesn't control my future. This is my dream and I'm going to make it reality."

"So he doesn't know and you came on your own."

"He, uh.., will find out eventually?"

"Look kid, I don't want to be caught up in your family drama. If Jude finds out about this you're on your own."

Lucy's eyes brightened up "Does this mean you agree?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself. Layla's kid or not doesn't mean I will be making exceptions for you. If you want to be my student you have to prove yourself."

"I am not my mother. I will be making my own place!" Lucy was determined to get the woman's approval.

Aquarius gave her a crooked smile "I like your spirit brat, follow me."

Lucy smiled brightly "Thank you so much!"

"Hey, I haven't accepted yet." The woman frowned and stormed out of the room with Lucy on her toes.

"So where are we going?" asked Lucy as she tried to catch up with the larger steps of the woman and failing at it.

"The ice rink."

"Why?"

"I just told you, you have to prove yourself."

"Right now?" this was not going well

"You have a problem with it?"

"No I just… I thought I would get more time to prepare."

"Prepare for what? I want to see your skills right now not an organized performance."

Aquarius finally stopped in front of twin metal doors and after fumbling a bit with a set of keys she opened them and stepped inside. Lucy could barely observe the world around her before the woman started talking again.

"We're here. Do you have your skates with you?"

"Yes, they're in my bag."

"Good, put them on and go to the ice."

Lucy got her skates out and stated putting them on. What was she going to do? She was confident in her skills but what if she failed? She just hoped the woman wouldn't make her do anything too difficult.

"Hurry up! I don't have all day to wait for you."

Lucy snapped out of her daze and speeded up her process eventually getting to the ice.

"So what do you want me to do now?"

"Now I want you to skate me something."

"Like what?"

"Whatever you want, go wild. I just want to see your skills. If I like it I may consider being your coach."

"Anything I want…"Lucy whispered to herself. She knew which routine she would be skating to! This might not be a failure after all! She knew it like the back of her hand by now.

She took her starting positions with her arms wide open and her eyes closed. She could feel the older skater's calculating stare on her. Lucy took a big breath and let the music play in her mind as she moved to the non-existent rhythm.

When she was skating everything disappeared around her. It was just her and the ice. At that moment she forgot all about her worries, about impressing Aquarius. She was just dancing alone, her blades slashing across the ice, going through overly familiar steps.

Before she knew it she had stopped her arms clasped together for the final pose. Then all of her worries came back to her and Lucy frantically searched for Aquarius's gaze to see if she liked it. They stared at each other silently for a few moments with Lucy's worries only growing. Was it appropriate, did she make any mistakes?

"That routine… it was…"

"It's my mom's." Lucy smiled to herself "I always saw her practicing that and she managed to teach me part of it before she… Well, I added some parts that I couldn't remember on my own too.

"You know, you really look like your mother." The woman's gaze almost softened for a moment but it quickly disappeared, Lucy thinking it was just her imagination.

"I want you to know that I am very strict with my students and I expect you to follow whatever I say. I will not tolerate any tardiness or laziness from your side, is that clear?"

Lucy stared at Aquarius for a few seconds processing what she meant. Catching on, a wide grin started making its way to her face. "So this means I passed!"

"It means you're not as horrible as I expected you to be. Damn it, now I have to sign all this paperwork because of you. Wait here I'll be back in a moment."

When Lucy was left alone she let out a scream of joy, spinning around on the ice in excitement. She had done it, she got herself a coach! The girl felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She was one step closer to her dream. Oh, she couldn't wait to tell Levy!

"That was awesome!"

Lucy yelped, startled by the sudden voice behind her. She thought she was alone when did someone come in? Looking for the source of the voice she recognized the pink-haired man from before. He was waving at her, leaning at the rink railing and a childish smile on his face.

Lucy carefully approached him from inside the rink. "It's you again. You scared me, I didn't know you were here!"

"Hey, maybe I'm secretly a ninja!" the man pulled his scarf up to his nose covering half of his face "Nin-nin"

Lucy couldn't suppress a laugh "You're ridiculous." The man grinned at her. "Are you even allowed to be here?"

"Well… sort of? That's why I was hiding! The crazy woman didn't notice me at all." He finished proudly.

"Wait, since when are you hiding?" he didn't see her whole routine, did he?

"Since you started skating! I was passing by and I noticed you from outside. That was a really amazing performance!"

"You liked it?" Lucy smiled as she felt warming up on the had really liked her performance! Lucy wasn't used to showing her skating to other people so it felt so good getting praised for it!

"Of course I did, you weirdo!"

And she was brought back to reality. "I told you to stop calling me that!"

"Then what should I call you?"

"What?"

"See, that's why you're a weirdo. You haven't told me your name yet, you know." he shot a bright smile.

"Oh, right! I'm Lucy, nice to meet you!" she extended her arm.

The boy reached to clasp her hand. "I'm Na-"

"NATSU, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?"

They both turned around to see Aquarius glaring at them from the entrance.

"Oh no, the crazy lady's back! I got to go!"

"WHO'S A CRAZY LADY?" She was now furious, that was not a good choice of words.

Natsu looked at Lucy with a scared look on his face "I really have to go, see you around Lucy!" and he bolted to the exit door with Aquarius throwing curses after him.

"Yeah, I'll see you around!" mumbled Lucy.

"That brat really gets on my nerves! Does he have a death wish?" Aquarius was fuming. "YOU!"

"YES!" Lucy flinched.

"We need to talk about your schedule and the contract. Get out of the ice and follow me."

"Yes ma'am."

Lucy's thoughts couldn't help but wonder to the strange man, Natsu. Without knowing it he had helped her a lot even if he was a bit annoying, calling her a weirdo all the time. She didn't get a chance to thank him… She would be sure to do so once she meets him again. Yeah that was a good plan! Lucy kept smiling for the rest of the day.

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 **Hey guys, we hope you enjoyed the new chapter! We look forward to reading your thoughts about it!**

 **We finally entered the nalu part of the story! We were so excited about posting this chapter, it's our favourite so far! From now on the nalu and gruvia parts will be posted more equally.**

 **We also have a new dual nalu and gruvis cover! You can found the full versions of them in our tumblrs. Ruby drew the awesome lineart and I colored them.**

 **See you next chap!**


	5. Chapter 5

_"You are not completely horrible but you do need some work. Training starts tomorrow, 7 am sharp. And DON'T be late."_

"I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna be late!" Lucy repeated in her mind as she sprinted across the pavement barely avoiding most of the other pedestrians minding their own business. Well, she did bump into some of them and she just may have forgotten to apologize in her hurry.

Oh she was so screwed! Aquarius was going to kill her! Her first day of practice and she's already on the verge of being kicked out! Excellent job Lucy.

Lucy was hardly ever late for anything especially an important event. She usually was on time or even a little earlier so why on the first day of pursuing her dream she managed to run late? Right, she was so nervous and excited the previous night and she couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard she tried. When she eventually entered the land of dreams she was so exhausted she managed to sleep through 3 alarm clocks!

And she would still be sleeping if it wasn't for Levy. Lucy had promised to eat breakfast together with her best friend so after some time and a couple of missed calls Levy decided to come to her apartment to check up on her friend. Figuring out Lucy was still asleep she started banging on the door to wake her up and fortunately that worked. Those were the benefits of having your best friend live a few doors away.

Lucy checked the time. 6:56 am. She only had 4 minutes left!

The girl unconsciously slowed down getting tired from all the running. She could see the top of the Fairy Tail rink on the distance, if she run a little bit more she could still make it on time! Lucy determined picked up her pace ignoring the pain on her feet.

Suddenly a blur of pink and black passed by her, knocking slightly on her shoulder. Lucy was ready to yell at the stranger when he turned around and she could identify him.

"I'm sorry, oh!" the man seemed to recognize her as well. "Hey Luigi!" he grinned at her

"Who's Luigi, my name is Lucy!"

"Wow, good morning to you too. What happened, running late?" Natsu slowed down to run with her.

"I'm not late!" well not yet.

"Then why are you running you weirdo?"

"You're running with me too! I'm not late yet but I think I can make it."

"You have a point there. I'm 20 minutes late! And it's the third time this week, Gildarts is going to murder me!"

"How did you manage to be that late?"

"I don't know, I even got out of my house earlier it's like I'm destined to be late at everything." He said dramatically

"Well it's my first day here and I'm almost late to it!" replied Lucy out of breath.

"You are going to be if you're that slow. Come on." Natsu without any warning grabbed Lucy's hand and sped up dragging her with him.

"Hey, I can run by myself!" she complained

"Do you want to be late or not? Come on, we're almost there!"

Lucy imagining her new coach's wrath collected the last bits of energy and picked up her pace running alongside Natsu, their hands still intertwined. They run up the stairs skipping a few of them and went straight through the automatic doors almost running to a nearby couch.

Lucy immediately threw herself into said couch and rested her head on her knees on an attempt to catch her breath and for her heartbeats to return to a normal level. It had been a long time since she last ran like that. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her running companion collapsed into the couch too burying his head in the pillows. She hadn't realized when they had stopped holding hands.

After she didn't feel like her lungs would fail at any moment. Lucy took out her phone and checked the time. 6:59 am.

"YES!" She made it, she made it! Aquarius had told her to wait in the lobby and she didn't see the woman anywhere so she was good!

"Wha- what time is it?" asked Natsu still face planting on the couch.

"It's almost 7 am, I made it!"

"Good for you, I'm… wait a second, what time did you say it was?" Natsu got up from the couch looking alarmed.

"7 am, why?"

"Oh man, are you serious? Are you sure it's not wrong or anything?"

"It's from my phone I don't think it's wrong. What happened?"

"I got here too early!" he exclaimed.

Lucy tried to suppress a laugh "That's it? What's wrong with that?"

"It means that I ran all this way for nothing! I knew that stupid clock had been broken again!"

"Hey, it's not the end of the world if you came early. It's actually good for you, you know."

"Hey, I'm not willing to sacrifice my sleep for that!"

At that moment Aquarius stormed into the lounge immediately spotting Lucy and Natsu. She briefly glared at the pink-haired troublemaker who flinched and buried himself deeper in the comforts of the couch in a poor attempt at hiding. However the woman didn't give him more thought and turned her attention to her student.

"Good, you're here. Follow me, I'll show you your training rink." She turned around and started walking to the direction from which she came from, not waiting for her to follow.

Lucy turned to her running partner and stared at him not knowing exactly what to say.

"I guess I'll see you later then." He waved at her grinning. "Good luck!"

"Thanks! Talk to you later!" Lucy smiled back before running behind her coach to catch up.

She was about to have her first lesson! She was excited and nervous at the same time as Aquarius led her to the rink she performed the day before.

"This will be our training rink at the moment." Stated Aquarius. "I'll tell you if there are any changes but you will come here for now. We will discuss your training program more later for now I want to see what you can do. Leave your things on the benches."

Lucy did as she was told and proceeded to get her skates out of her bag before she was stopped by her new coach.

"No, you will not need those yet. First you will run 10 laps around the building, I want to see your endurance level. After that do some stretches and get into the ice to do another 15 laps."

Lucy blanched. Her feet still felt sore from her morning run and she get tired easily.

"Come on, get moving. Why are you staring at me like an idiot?"

"Yes, I'm starting!"

This was going to be a long day.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - /**

Gray executed a triple salchow for the seventh time on that day and landed wobbly on the ice. It wasn't perfect but he was getting there. At least he hadn't landed on his butt this time.

After the accident he had to readjust to skating back again and that involved the painfully slow process of re-learning moves. He had to be careful with putting weight on his injured leg and not overstretch it. Gray was really looking forward to going to his regular training program by now.

The black haired skater rested his hands on his knees and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall across from him. 7:30 am. Where was she?

It wasn't like they had agreed on a specific time so Gray couldn't complain she was late. He couldn't wait for her the whole day though he had been in the rink for a long time already. Well, he did come a bit too early but a little more practice wouldn't hurt. It was in his program anyway.

He had told Mira to send Juvia to his practicing rink so he didn't have to worry about looking for her. He would just give her a quick lesson and get on with it.

A scowl slowly formed on his face. Why did he have to be the one to teach the girl? He had no idea how to do that! It wasn't like he couldn't pull it off if he tried but it was still too much responsibility and he had other things to do.

Gray had tried to get Cana, an instructor at the rink and his longtime friend, to teach the lesson but she blatantly refused. She was usually in charge of teaching classes both adults and children but the adult class didn't get enough participants this year so it wasn't formed. That particular class had never been that popular but it was just his luck that it shut down at this point.

Apparently Cana had taken 2 of her student to coach regularly into the junior league and didn't have time for more private lessons. Also to her words he made this mess and he should be the one to sort it out. Sometimes Gray believed the woman really liked to make him suffer. He also suspected that her "other plans for the evening" had something to do with alcohol.

Gray really, really wanted to tell Juvia _"I'm really sorry I can't teach you after all you can enroll in regular classes next year if you want."_ and get on with it. But he couldn't bring himself to do that. He had made a promise, even if he didn't know what he was promising at the time, and he would have to keep it. It couldn't be that bad, could it?

He may have little to none experience in teaching but he was confident he could pull it off. Gray would just approach the matter like he did in any other thing. Keep his cool and everything would be sorted out. It was like Mira had said. He wouldn't know until he tried it.

Gray snapped out of his thoughts and went back to practice. It was just a one-time thing anyway.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

Juvia carefully tried to open the metal door without making any sound and peeked her head inside half hiding behind the much larger doors. She quickly found who she was looking for in the center of the rink. Gray Fullbuster looked as elegant in real life as he looked on the TV screen while skating. Juvia still couldn't believe this was happening to her!

She didn't manage to get much sleep from her excitement thinking about what happened and what was coming. That wasn't exactly beneficial for her early morning swimming practice. She had been so sleepy her coach made her go home to get some rest. In exchange she had some extra practice this week that she was not looking forward too.

Juvia unconsciously leaned more to the metal door and it ended up giving out to her weight and she stumbled forward catching herself before she face planted to the floor. So much for a decent entrance.

She quickly looked up to find the other occupant of the room. Gray had been alerted by the noise and he was now staring at her his hands still lifted in an unfinished move.

Juvia felt her cheeks grow warmer. She had a way for making a fool of herself in front of her idol.

Gray cleared his throat, composing himself. "Good you're here." He then skated closer to her position outside the rink.

"Juvia is sorry if she was late!"

"Nah, it's fine. We hadn't agreed on a time anyway." He waved her off. "Now before we start I want you to know this is a one-time thing, okay?"

The woman nodded her head in understanding.

"I did promise this lesson but I can't give you more. For that you can check with official courses."

"Juvia understands! She is very happy with just one lesson" she gave him a small smile. She wasn't expecting anything more. Even the opportunity to spend some time with her idol was amazing. It felt like a dream and she half expected to wake up soon in her warm bed and go back to reality.

"So, this isn't your first time on the ice, is it?"

"No, Juvia has practiced alone before." She confirmed.

"Cool, put on your skates and get to the ice. I'll see what level you are and we'll continue accordingly. I hope you've already passed the falling constantly on the ice phase."

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - /**

Juvia ended up a considerable amount of times on the cold surface of the ice. Though she was a fast learner to Gray's joy. She may have been a little clumsy at the start but she got the hang of things quickly. At least she didn't make Gray's job harder.

Gray winced as his temporary student face planted into the dividing wall of the rink trying out the new move he had shown her.

Juvia had executed everything else without much trouble considering she was a beginner. Gray was almost impressed. However she didn't seem to be able to get this one. It wasn't much harder than the rest of what he showed her but no matter how many times he corrected her stance she ended messing it up.

Gray took pity on her the fifth time she lost her balance and almost fell to her face. "Okay, I think that's enough."

Juvia turned to him, sweat glistening in her forehead, trying to catch her breath but she had a desperate look on her face. "Wait, Juvia can get it right! Just one more try and Juvia will get it right!"

"Hey, don't worry about it." Gray reassured her "It's natural not to be able to do everything in the first few tries. Besides you seem tired, you can't keep on like that."

"But Juvia has disappointed Gray-sama! She should be able to do it!"

"It won't be good for you to continue." Gray explained calmly. This reminded him too much of his early skating days. "I'm surprised you lasted that long to be honest. You… you did good for a first try." He was never good at giving compliments.

However the blue haired woman's eyes light up with that statement. "Really? You really thought Juvia was good? Thank you!" a wide smile went up her face.

Gray looked away slightly embarrassed. He really hadn't said anything special. "So that concludes our lesson then. Again if you want to apply for more, check that with Mira in the reception."

"Juvia is very grateful for this lesson and she is sorry if she took too much of your time! What does Juvia owe Gray-sama?"

"What? No! I chose to do this you don't owe me anything!"

He wouldn't admit it out loud but he actually enjoyed their little lesson. Teaching wasn't an awful experience like he thought it would be and Juvia wasn't that bad after all.

"But Juvia still feels bad about it…"

"Don't. It's fine, really."

Juvia furrowed her eyebrows and lost herself in her thoughts for a couple of second before her face lit up. "What if Juvia bought you something to eat?"

"I told you, you don't have to do anything!"

"Juvia insists! Just something small, it's the least she can do!" Juvia had a determined look on her face, her eyes silently pleading him.

They stared at each other for a few seconds neither of them backing up before Gray gave up. "Fine, do whatever you want!"

"Thank you! Juvia will not take much of your time!"

"Whatever, you're the one buying me food."

"So where does Gray- sama want to go?" Juvia asked as they glided to the end of the rink and started pulling off their skates.

Gray thought about it. The rink cafeteria would be closed at this time and he didn't want them getting anything expensive. But maybe… "There's a good ice cream shop in the corner."

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / -/**

 **Hey guys! Hope you liked the new chapter! This was more of a transisioning chapter but we're getting closer to the end of the first pary of the fic (the introduction part) And this was the first chapter with both nalu and gruvia in it, we hope you enjoyed that. As always we look forward to reading your thoughts. Reading the reviews makes us so happy!**

 **See you next chap!**


	6. Chapter 6

Lucy winced as she let her leg fall to the ground finishing her last cool down stretch. Her whole body was burning up and her muscles felt numb.

It turns out Aquarius was very strict with her training program, who would have thought? Lucy knew very well what she was getting into when she signed up to be coached by the woman but she never expected it to be so tiring. She did exercise and practice on her own before but this was on a whole other level! Lucy was sure it would be just a matter of time before she gets used to her new training process but still that didn't ease her hurting muscles.

She felt like each day of training was getting harder and harder. Her lack of stamina didn't help things at all and combined with her new part-time job she felt exhausted.

On the bright side, Lucy felt very happy at her new workplace! Levy had introduced her to her boss at a bookstore she was working on and Lucy was accepted as supporting staff. She worked on some afternoons and it was amazing to be surrounded by so many books! It was like a dream come true, even though she could just sit and read all of them.

Lucy's stomach let out a loud growl that echoed through the empty rink. And to top all of that now she was hungry. She grabbed her skates and went to the locker room. After battling with the lock for a few seconds Lucy pulled out her backpack out of her designated locker and shoved her white skates in. She then reached out for her phone and pulled it out.

It was… 11 AM and she had to meet up with Levy at 12 AM. They had agreed to meet in Lucy's apartment for a movie marathon since it was a day off work for both of them. Now she would have to get home quickly, take a quick shower and prepare her living room for the movie watching before her friend came, Lucy started planning in her head. It was fine she had enough time.

Oh, how she dreamed of lying in her comfy couch and eating delicious food! But all that would have to wait for now.

"Be strong Lucy!" she said to herself "You're almost home."

Lucy went into the lobby and started heading towards the exit but stopped in her tracks as she saw a familiar pink haired man chatting with the woman at the reception. She couldn't quite remember her name.

Lucy contemplated going to greet them or just leave but before she could come to a conclusion the white haired receptionist spotted her and waved cheerfully. Natsu brightened up as he turned around and motioned her to come over.

"Hi!" Lucy greeted them as she approached the reception desk.

"Hey, did you just finish practice?" asked Natsu. "You look pretty bad."

"Thanks." Replied Lucy dryly. "Yeah, I was just about to head home."

"Natsu!" the woman shoved him lightly "You can't just say things like that!"

"It's fine!" Lucy reassured her "I do look pretty terrible right now. I don't think he meant anything bad."

"See, Lucy gets it! Ow, Mira stop that."

Mira, right! That was her name.

The woman smiled sweetly "So how is training going? Is Aquarius giving you any trouble?"

"No, it's going pretty well! I'm still getting used to the environment."

"Good for you." Natsu cut in "Gildarts kept me another hour that usual for _'being late'_ to practice." He air quoted.

"You can't complain Natsu, you were 1 hour late after all so it's fair."

"Hey, it was only 52 minutes!" grumbled their male companion.

Lucy couldn't suppress a laugh at that "Mira's right, that is pretty late."

Natsu gave her a side eye glare "Traitor. Who was running to practice a few days ago?"

"I was on time! And you were running with me!"

"Those are details, you're missing the point." He grinned playfully.

At that moment a loud growl echoed through the almost empty lobby. Both women turned to Natsu who was clutching his stomach sheepishly.

"Natsu, you were just eating a while ago!" Mira cried out.

"Yes, but I'm a growing boy! I need my nutrition! Also, I had extra practice that takes up more energy." Natsu looked at the older woman with wide pleading eyes.

Mira stared at him before deciding to give in "Okay, I will make you something."

"YES! Thanks, you're the best!"

"I know, I know. You're lucky you're my friend, the cafe won't open for at least 3 more hours.

"Come eat something too Lucy!" Natsu turned back to her.

Lucy waved her hands around in denial "Ah, no thanks. I'm fine!"

With that statement her stomach decided to betray her and protest by releasing a loud growl similar to Natsu's. Sometimes Lucy felt like her own body hated her.

"Come on" Mira nudged her kindly "I'll make you something quick."

Lucy felt a blush creeping to her cheeks "You don't have to, I don't want to put you into too much trouble."

"Nonsense! It's no problem at all. I'm going to make something for Natsu anyway."

"Don't just endure your hunger you weirdo." Natsu backed Mira up.

"Okay then" Lucy smiled "I guess eating a little won't hurt."

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

"Here you go!" The white haired woman placed the plates with their respectable orders in front of them.

The pair of skaters broke of their argument about spicy chicken and tuna sandwich. Lucy had no idea how they got to that but apparently both of them ended up in a playful banter about their favourite foods.

It looked so delicious! Lucy could feel her stomach rumbling from excitement. On the other hand…Lucy eyed Natsu's plate. She didn't doubt Mira's cooking skills but she couldn't imagine herself ever eating that.

She had to admit though, the rink's outside area was beautiful. The first thing she noticed when she went outside was the lake in the center of the park surrounded by huge trees. Apparently in winter when the lake froze it became an ice rink, open to the public. Lucy had missed the opportunity to go to the lake as it had already melted down but she hoped to see it the next year. On the side of the open area a small stool was placed along with tables where she and Natsu were sitting. Beside the tables stood tall pink umbrellas but they were closed for the time being since the café hadn't opened yet.

Lucy turned her attention to the white haired woman "Thank you so much, it looks delicious!"

"It was no problem, dear!" Mira smiled sweetly.

"So how much is it?" Lucy asked searching through her backpack for her wallet.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it!" Mira stopped her "It's on the house."

Lucy dropped the search for her wallet and started waving her hands around flustered. "It's not right, I should give you something!"

"It's fine! It's your first time eating here after all."

Lucy looked at the older woman gratefully "Thank you! Again." After all it was free food, who in the right mind would say no to that? Lucy did have to spend a lot of money these days for rent and for her training. She was trying to save up as much money as possible.

"Come on, eat your food." Natsu urged her with his voice slightly muffled from the food "It's gonna get cold."

"Natsu's right. You two eat your food and I'll go inside. Tell me if you need anything!"

"Okay!" Lucy waved at her before picking up her sandwich and taking a small bite of it. It was indeed as delicious as it looked. She hadn't realized she was _that_ hungry.

The pair continued to eat in silence for a few seconds. Lucy spared her companion a glance. Well, that was fast, he was almost finished. She chewed up the remaining of her sandwich and attempted to start up a conversation again.

"So… you've been in the rink for some time now, right?"

Natsu hummed in agreement, swallowing the last bits of his lunch.

"Then you must know a lot of famous skaters!" continued Lucy with excitement "That's so cool! I just moved here so I haven't met anyone else except for you."

"Hey, are you implying something?"

Lucy was ready to reply before she unintentionally caught a glimpse of the sky. A few suspicious grey clouds were beginning to gather, covering up the blue sky.

"Hmm that's weird." She muttered to herself.

"What is it?" Natsu tried to move his head to find what caught her attention.

Lucy pointed at the clouds "Look. I swear it was sunny moments ago… Do you think it'll rain?"

"Oh, that's it? Nah, don't worry, it won't."

"I think it's going to rain." Lucy repeated staring worryingly at the rapidly increasing clouds "And I don't even have an umbrella with me!"

"Listen, you're not used to Magnolia weather, this happens all the time." The man leaned back to his chair in a relaxed position "They will just pass by, you'll -" Natsu was interrupted by a flash of light and thunder echoing after it. A single raindrop fell into the bridge of Lucy's nose.

"You were saying?"

Natsu sit up from his seating position. "We're still fine!" he said stubbornly "This can't be more than a few raindrops."

At that moment it was like the clouds had heard him and rain poured in signaling the start of a heavy rainstorm.

"OH COME ON!" Natsu shaked his fist angrily at the weeping sky.

Lucy chuckled at his antics. She could already feel her clothes get dump even under the protection of the trees. She quickly calculated the distance to the building. They were safe for now but they run fast enough they could reach a much better shelter and…

"Come on Lucy, how long are you gonna stand there?"

And he had already gone ahead.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Lucy hastily grabbed her backpack and started brisk walking towards the main building. She knew she would get more drenched that way but at least she wouldn't fall over to the muddy ground. It was too slippery to take any chances.

On the other hand, Natsu wasn't as patient and careful. He was already ahead of her nearly sprinting to the back entrance hopping over obstacles and puddles on his way.

"Hurry up Lucy!" he shouted over the heavy rain.

"I'm being mindful, thank you very much." Lucy shouted back not taking her eyes of the ground "You should too if you don't want to fall-"

A high pitched shriek sounded from the front followed by a splash of water and some not so children friendly expressions.

Natsu was lying head first into a large puddle of mud, his clothes and hair covered in the sticky substance. Lucy rushed by his side as he slowly turned over to a front lying position staring at the gray clouds above.

"Are you ok? Did you hurt anything." Lucy quickly scanned him, he didn't seem to be in pain.

The fallen boy then turned his head to her direction with a deadpan look on his face. "The universe hates me."

Lucy couldn't contain herself. She doubled over and lost herself into a feat of laughter. She didn't know if it was the defeated look staring into nothing, his body half covered in mud or the bored, unemotional voice but Lucy couldn't stop laughing at the combination of them. A small part of her felt bad for the man's situation but it was brushed over by the hilarity of the situation.

"I'm lying on the ground and you're just laughing at me?" Natsu whined "I could have been really hurt!"

"Sorry- It's just… You…" Lucy was consumed by another wave of laughter. She had reached the point where her breath was caught on her throat from too much laughing and she could feel tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Oh, is that how it's gonna be?" Natsu had a mischievous look on his face. That couldn't mean anything good. Lucy couldn't do anything as she felt a wet hand tighten around her ankle and she was brought down to the muddy ground with a muffled scream.

"You little!" She quickly got up wiping out the mud on her cheeks but only succeeded at making it worse.

Now it was Natsu's turn to erupt into laughter "Oh man, you should have seen your _face_!"

However he was soon cut off by a mud ball landing straight in his face. Lucy was very proud of her aim.

Natsu grinned as he wiped it off his cheek "You're on."

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

"Why, just why did you two think it was a good idea to play outside when there's a _rainstorm_ going on?

Lucy's teeth clattered as she pulled her towel closer to her body in an attempt to warm up. She could admit that wasn't the best decision she has made. Despite the weather gradually getting warmer it was still very much winter and it did no go well to sit in the cold with wet clothes.

She and Natsu hadn't understood how much time had passed until Mira found them and dragged them inside. The poor woman freaked out when she saw them having an all-out mud war in the rink's backyard. She brought them in and fussed over them covering the pair with towels and blankets.

It had been such a long time since Lucy had last let herself free and had so much fun. It felt really good to play around like a kid again. But now she was beginning to see the downside of the whole thing. Her clothes were completely dump and covered in mud and grass and her hair felt greasy and it stuck to her face. She must be a delight to look at right now. Moreover now that the adrenaline of the game and running around had faded away her whole body was freezing and no amount of towels to cover her with seemed to help.

Sitting on the couch beside her she saw Natsu frown under the older woman's gaze "We're sorry." He concluded.

Mira sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly "Just be a little more careful, okay? I don't want two of our skaters getting sick on my watch."

The pair simultaneously nodded in agreement.

"You two should go take a bath. You can't go out like this. Follow me Lucy. Natsu, you know the way."

"But I'm fine!"

"Natsu." Mira was smiling but her tone was slightly threatening.

"Aye sir!"

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

Lucy ruffled her damp, now clean, hair with her towel one last time before handing it to the waiting older woman. Thankfully she had managed to take all the mud of without too many problems and loss of hair.

"Thanks! For everything."

"Oh, it was nothing! I've gotten used to taking care of our skaters here in the rink. Believe me I have seen way worse stuff."

Lucy was curious about that statement but she didn't say anything. Instead her eyes wandered off around the room searching for a familiar shade of pink.

"He's not here."

"What?"

"Natsu's not here, he left a couple of minutes ago." Mira smiled knowingly.

"Ah, no! I wasn't… looking for him. I should get going too!"

"Wait!" Mira searched under the reception desk for a moment before pulling out a bright red umbrella. "Take it, the rain hasn't stopped yet."

"Thank you so much! I'll return it on Wednesday!"

"Have a safe trip home!" Mira waved cheerfully.

When Lucy was out of the shelter of the building she opened up the borrowed umbrella and took the route home. Now all that was left was to explain to her blue haired friend why she was 30 minutes late to their meeting. That would be a fun story.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

Juvia halted her skating for a moment and looked out of the stained window on the other side of the big skating room. The rain was still going strong though considerably lighter than the rainstorm in the morning. Fortunately though, it had stopped people from going out of their houses so she now had the whole guest ring to herself.

Juvia had missed the rain. In her previous town it used to rain all the time. It was a weather routine she had gotten used to. But from when she moved to Magnolia it hadn't really rained before this day.

Other people would see this as a good thing but Juvia never minded the rain. The sound of the raindrops hitting the ceiling and windows was strangely calming and the smell of wet grass and ground was one of her favorite things. She generally felt very calm and relaxed whenever it rained.

However, it did hold a smidge of sadness in it. Sometimes the sadness would overtake her on days like that and she would wish the rain would stop following her already. But this day she was very grateful for the rain's familiar presence.

Juvia teared off her gaze from the window, shaking off her thoughts, and focused back on her task. She would perfect that move today!

She had gotten scolded by her swimming coach the other day for being dazed off in practice and not performing as good as usual. That resulted in Juvia having to go for extra practices which she was not particularly happy about. That also meant that she didn't have the time or energy to go back to Fairy Tail and maybe see a particular black haired man again.

She hadn't seen him since their last lesson… Juvia knew very well the lessons couldn't just continue but she couldn't help but miss it. It was really a dream come true to be able to talk to her idol and spend so much time with him! She really hoped she would catch a glimpse of him this day and maybe drop by to say a quick hello.

And last time, oh last time! They had gone out to eat together! Just he two of them! Together! It was like a date! But not really… They didn't actually do much.

They got their preferred ice cream flavors and had some small talk about skating and everyday things. Juvia avoided the subject of his leg. He didn't seem that comfortable to talk about it. She had been too nervous the entire time anyway. At some point she felt like her head would explode with all the things that were happening. In the end they finished their ice creams and went to their separate ways.

It wasn't anything much but it was all Juvia ever dreamed of! Well she actually dreamed of way much more but that wasn't the point. Juvia smiled at herself. It was so different meeting Gray Fullbuster, many times figure skating champion, in real life. So much more different than watching him from her TV or her laptop screen. It felt so real.

He was so calm and collected! But he was a bit closed off too. Which was pretty natural since he had just met Juvia. She did hope they would be able to spend a little more time together on the future! He was never rude with her even with her strange requests. And he was so handsome! His eyes were the prettiest dark blue color! She never had the opportunity to look at them so closely before. And he-

"AHHH!" Juvia screamed as she lost her balance and fell for once more right into the plastic dividers. That's what she got for dozing off when practicing. She rubbed her side where she collided with the divider to ease off the pain. She should really stop getting lost in her thoughts on the ice, it proved to be pretty dangerous. And she had enough bruises already.

The pain having become just a dull ache, Juvia got into position ready to try again. What had Gray-sama said about that move again?

"You're doing it all wrong."

Ah yes she could almost hear his- Juvia whirled around to the source of the voice. She wasn't imagining things! Gray Fullbuster was standing in front of the open rink doors in his full glory. He was slightly leaning to the doorframe with his arms crossed and a small scowl to his face and his lips pressed together in a line. Juvia guessed he didn't mean to speak up.

"Sorry, for startling you." He scratched the back of his head and averted his eyes awkwardly. "I was just passing by, I'll leave you alone now."

"Wait!" Juvia shouted before he could turn around. "Umm… what… What is Juvia doing wrong?"

She could feel heat rising to her face. Her ears were burning up. There she goes holding him back again. She really hoped she wasn't a hindrance.

Gray stopped and stared at her with calculating eyes before speaking up "You're leaning too far away in the front. Stand up a bit straighter so you don't lose your balance again."

"Thank you! Juvia will keep that in mind." She smiled widely.

"Yeah, don't sweat it." He started going through the metal door before stopping and turning around "Oh and try not to look at the ice so much. You need to stand up prouder."

"Okay!" Juvia squeaked. She hadn't ever noticed she was looking at the ice so much.

And then he was gone out of the room with a small wave of his hand and Juvia tried to calm her racing heart. That was a surprisingly stressful experience.

Slowly a smile crept up her face. But it was so amazing! He had actually come to talk to her! He came on his own and talked to her! She was so happy!

Juvia twirled happily around herself. But she had forgotten a small detail. She was still on the ice. Thus she ended up on the cold slippery surface of the ice. Again.

She should really keep her thoughts for after she has exited the ice.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

 **~~BONUS~~**

It was a beautiful, sunny Monday morning and no one should be spending their time waiting outside of a hospital to- Wait no. That was completely wrong. First of all, no Monday morning was a good morning. Natsu had Mondays completely ruined for him by the school system. Who woke up in a Monday after resting for the weekend and said 'Oh boy I'm so excited to start my day at 7 in the morning!' That's right, no one!

Now that he thought about it better it wasn't a very sunny day either… He could spot some stray gray clouds beginning to gather and hide the morning sun. And they didn't seem to have any plans on leaving anytime soon.

Well, no matter what the day was like, Natsu did not want to just spend another minute standing alone in the cold. He prided himself as being very tolerant to the cold but even he was starting to feel the chill creep up to him. (a/n is that right?) It was only the middle of autumn but it was already beginning to feel like winter. He couldn't say that was his favourite season.

Natsu scoffed and placed his phone back to his pocket. There were so many of "Dragon Slayer" that he could play. And he definitely did not stop because he was losing too much!

He looked at the hospital's back exit. Still nothing. What was he doing in there! He should have been done an hour ago. Natsu knew he shouldn't have caved in when Gildarts asked him for this favor. Curse his good heart!

"Natsu?"

"Oh, finally you're done!" The man in question turned around to the familiar voice.

"Pffffttt!" Natsu couldn't contain his laughter. The sight before him was too much. Gray had just gotten his broken leg in the cast and he was trying, and mostly failing, to walk with his new crutches towards Natsu. What really got Natsu's attention, however, were the pink and blue hearts and scribbles all around the man's cast that looked like a child's work. Combined with Gray's grumpy face it made for a very hilarious picture.

"Oh man!" Natsu exclaimed as he tried to contain his laughter "This… this is so cute!"

"Shut up." Gray glared at him, a little hint of pink dusting his cheeks. "There was a little girl beside me when I was waiting for the doctor and she really liked my cast. You couldn't have said no to her either."

"You can thank her for improving your look." Natsu snickered.

"What are you doing here anyway, flame brain? Where's the old man?"

"Something came up, Gildarts won't come."

"So he sent _you_ over?"

"Hey, I'm offering you a ride home, you should be thankful for that!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say."

"Come on now we're leaving. I wanna get back to the rink as fast as I-" Natsu stopped as he noticed the pained look flashing on his friend's face. He cleared his throat and tried to change the course of the conversation "Yeah… so are you okay with walking to the car?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. That's what the crutches are for." Gray lifted one of them up to prove his point.

"You sure? You look like a baby duck that's taking its first steps."

"Hey, it's actually hard to walk with these things!"

"Oh come on, how hard can it be? It's okay, you can admit you suck at this. No one will judge you, except for me."

"You try walking on them and then we'll see if you'll talk!" Gray taunted him.

"I'm pretty sure I could do a better job than you." Natsu immediately replied.

"Is that so? Well, here you go." The black haired man stopped on his tracks and extended the walking devises to Natsu, while balancing on a nearby tree.

"What, right now?" Natsu asked surprised.

"We're in front of a hospital. It's the perfect place to be if you mess up and break something. Or are you not able to do it after all?"

"Ha! I'm not scared!" Natsu swiped the crutches off his hands. "I'll show you!"

He carefully positioned the metal handles under his armpit and put his weight in them testing their hold. Satisfied with the result he tried lifting his right leg and taking a few steps forward. He actually made it two steps in, before losing his footing and start heading straight into the concrete of the pavement. He had put his foot back to the ground, stumbling forward, so that he didn't fell right on his face.

Now it was Gray's turn to start laughing. "Oh wow! That should be so easy! I don't know how you could ever mess it up."

"Quit it ice princess! It's not my fault!"

"Oh yes, I'm sure that's it."

"No, I'm serious! It's the crutches. They're not the right size for me, I'm taller than you."

"What the hell are you talking about? We're the same height. Besides if someone's a bit taller, that's me."

The pink haired skated lifted one of his borrowed crutches up and started inspecting it. "Now where is it…?"

"What are you doing now?" Gray asked confused.

"I'm looking for the adjustment thing."

"The what now?"

"You know! The thing that lets you fix the height of the crutches."

"Natsu put it down, you don't know what you're doing."

"No, no, I got it."

"Natsu stop, you're gonna-"

Natsu heard a pop from the metallic crutch and looked in horror at his hands where he hold two pieces of the device that had come apart. He looked at it silently for a few seconds before looking back to Gray, his eyes widened in shock. He mentally prepared himself for the worse.

What he did not expect was to see the other man snickering before dissolving into a full laughing fit. "You… you should have seen your face!" Gray managed to make out between trying to catch his breath "I knew this would happen!"

"You knew it was coming off? Come on, I thought I had broken it!" Natsu whined.

"That's why I didn't tell you!"

Natsu frowned at him and lightly punched him in the arm, trying not to push him over. "You're an idiot."

He watched his friend wipe off a stray tear from all the laughing and Natsu tried not to smile himself, maintaining a grumpy composure. Gray hadn't genuinely laughed at all since the accident. He didn't even respond that well to their bickering. It felt so weird and out of place.

Now he definitely seemed more relaxed and happy. Things were starting to fix themselves, Natsu started to realize in delight. Everything would be back to normal soon.

Something good came out of this favor after all.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

 **Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, here's an extra long chapter to make up for it! We hope you enjoyed reading both the actual chapter and the bonus :) We look forward to hearing your thoughts about it! The nalu rain scene was one of my favourite scenes to write so far!**

 **On another note after this chapter the fic will be going on a small hiatus. Because of school stuff and exams it's getting harder to find time to write so we decided to postpone the fic for a while. It's not going to be long though, don't worry. We'll probably be back around June. Thank you for reading our story, we hope you understand!**

 **See you next chap!**


	7. Chapter 7

Lucy winced as she landed the Axel jump barely being able to keep her balance for a split second before stumbling and almost falling to the cold hard ice. She could feel Aquarius glaring daggers at her back.

They had been practicing that move almost the whole training session now and she didn't seem to be making much progress. Needless to say her coach had been beginning to feel a little irritated. Well it wasn't like it needed much trying to get Aquarius angry. Lucy seemed to be achieving that just by being near her.

Lucy had always prided herself for being a relatively fast learner so she shouldn't be taking that much to get a move right. She didn't know what was wrong with her on that day but she just couldn't do it! It frustrated her to no ends. And more importantly she did not want to manage with her equally frustrated coach.

"Just. What. Do you think. You're doing." Lucy winced once again. Aquarius made a point to emphasize each word but kept her tone low. That wasn't good. She almost wished the woman was yelling at her.

"It's not like you haven't executed similar moves! I just don't get it. All day it's like you have your head in the clouds! "

"I'm sorry…"

"No, that's not the point! That's a move you really have to know!" the older woman scoffed "You know what? Forget it. We're done for today."

"What? But I still haven't-"

"Yeah, yeah I know. If it's an off day for you it's no use staying here. It's a big waste of time for both of us. You can do some stamina training or something, I don't care." Aquarius moved to the edges of the rink and Lucy followed her after a brief moment of hesitation.

"Next time I expect you to execute that without having to touch the ice. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

The two started undoing their skates in silence.

"You know, I'm really wondering which idiot was your previous teacher. You're not terrible yourself but you really lack in some practical departments."

Lucy felt her heart jump out of her chest. There it was. She couldn't have avoided that topic forever. "Oh, umm. You see the thing is…" she stumbled with her words. "I didn't really have a skating teacher."

"WHAT?" Aquarius turned to look at her with wide eyes "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I mostly learned on my own. Mom helped me at first but then… Well I practiced on my own with a little help of the owner of the local rink. He didn't give me full lessons but he helped me with whatever I needed."

"Wait, are you saying Jude couldn't afford to get you a skating teacher?"

"He… wasn't really fond of the idea of me following my mother's footsteps. He even forbade me from skating." Lucy laughed awkwardly. She had gone to great lengths to sneak past him and train whenever she could.

"Oh my- Oh, he's so dead! That absolute moron forbade _Layla's_ daughter from skating! Just you wait I'll-"

At that moment a ringtone sounded through the rink and Aquarius frantically searched her handbag to pull out her phone. Lucy tried not to look so relieved at the interruption.

"What?" She answered the phone angrily. "YOU DID WHAT?"

Lucy almost felt bad for the person calling. The woman wasn't in her best mood at the moment. At least it wasn't directed at her anymore.

"You unbelievable little- Okay, just stay where you are I'm coming." She finished the call while spouting not so kind words at the black screen of the cellphone.

"I have to go." She turned to Lucy "Something came up."

The blonde sighed in relief. That phone call was her savior!

"This isn't over yet, you know." Aquarius said, reading Lucy's mind, before she left the room in a hurry.

That was a very tiring day… But at least she was done with practice earlier than expected! Now she could go home, have a nice warm bath, take a long nap and-

"Hey Lucy!"

"WHAT THE-" The girl in question screamed in surprise as bright pink head sprouted seemingly out of nowhere. "NATSU?"

"Well yeah, it's me, are you having memory problems from that age?"

"I know it's you idiot! Will you ever stop doing that?"

"Do what?" Natsu asked blinking innocently.

"Oh you know exactly what I mean." Lucy squinted at him "Why can't you go into a room like a normal person."

"I did come in like a normal person! But the crazy lady was here and I think she still keeps a grudge on me."

"That's ridiculous, she doesn't- wait no, you may have a point…"

"See!" Natsu grinned in triumph.

"Wait, how long were you hiding?"

"Hmm, not sure. I was done with practice early and I came to see how you were doing."

Lucy felt her heart jump inside her chest **.**

Had he heard about Lucy's dad? Did he know who she was? She didn't want that! She didn't want him to treat her differently…

"You didn't hear anything… weird?" she asked cautiously.

"Weird? No, not really. I was too far away to hear what you were talking about if that's what you meant."

Lucy sighed in relief "It wasn't anything serious anyway."

"Though, I was here long enough to see you fail in the Axel jump" he smirked.

"I'm working on that!" Lucy exclaimed glaring at her companion "I'll have it down in no time, you just caught me on a bad day." She defended herself.

"Hey, don't worry about it! Everyone has their bad days. I remember when I first started skating I had a huge problem with it! Gildarts was ready to give up on me!"

"Really? I found that pretty easy, it was one of the first moves I mastered."

"I salute you for that. I still struggle with that stuff."

"Oh, I know!" Natsu's whole face brightened up "We could practice together tomorrow!I could help you with that!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, why not? I don't have practice with Gildarts anyway."

"Thanks." Lucy smiled at him gratefully. "I really appreciate it."

Lucy picked up her backpack and slid it on her left shoulder adjusting the strap so that it wouldn't slide off "Well I should get going now. I'll see you later."

"Okay, bye!" Natsu waved at her excitedly.

Lucy moved to exit the rink but before she even took one step forward she felt a hand grabbing her by the shoulder and turning her around forcibly.

"NO WAIT!"

Lucy looked at her fellow skater quizzing. "Okay?"

"Ahh I can't believe I almost forgot! It's your fault you know!" he pointed at Lucy accusatory

"What? How is it my fault I have no idea what you're talking about!" Lucy furrowed her eyebrows.

"The reason I came to see you!" Natsu exclaimed excitedly "Come on, I need to show you something." He grabbed her by the arm and started pulling her towards the exit.

"Hey, hey, you can't just drag me like that! You didn't even ask if I had anything else to do!" Lucy pulled back at Natsu's arm and pulled both of them to a halt.

The boy turned to her with a blank expression as if contemplating something before asking "Do you have anything else to do?"

"No…"

"Why are you making this complicated then?" Natsu looked at her judgingly "Weirdo."

"Hey, we've been through this before!"

"Yeah well you don't seem to have stopped proving me right."

"You know what, I think something just came up."

"Nooo wait Lucy I didn't mean it!"

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

In the end Lucy caved in to Natsu's pleas and let her new friend drag her through the building before stopping in front of a wooden door somewhere in the second floor.

"Wait, wait!" Lucy stopped the boy before he could turn the door handle to let them in.

"What?"

She pointed at the sign that hanged in the center of the door that read 'staff only' "Are you sure we can go in there?"

"Lucy?"

"Yeah."

"You're part of Fairy Tail now, you're basically the staff."

"Oh…"

"Besides we put the sign there." He stepped into the room while opening his arms widely. "Welcome to our hideout!"

Lucy carefully stepped inside and was immediately greeted with an explosion of colors.

The small roomed was crumped with two brown and one blue single seat sofaswith a huge TV screen on the center of the room. On a first notice the room was pretty messy. There were clothes lying around on the floor and small everyday things like some headphones and plushies. And was that a mini fridge on the corner? However it didn't look bad. It had sort of a lived in feeling to it. It was comforting.

Lucy eyes were immediately drawn to the tall bright red bookshelf that took up one of the walls of the room. It was filled with books, CDs, figurines and trophies. Lucy smiled subconsciously as she came closer and browsed through the shelves recognizing a few titles.

"So what do you think?"

"That's amazing!" she turned at her companion with a huge grin. "What is this room?"

"Oh it's our little hideout. We come here to relax and hang out in between practice. You can come here anytime you want!"

"Really?"

"Yeah sure, I wouldn't have brought you there otherwise!"

Lucy felt the corners of her mouth twitch up "Thanks, I'll take you on that offer."

Natsu flashed a bright smile in response. "Hey you wanna play some games?"

"Games?"

The boy gestured to the TV at the end of the room and Lucy noticed for the first time a small gaming device being plugged into it.

"It has mostly old games but I think those are the best. So what do you say?" Natsu looked at her with wide expectant eyes.

"Ah, I'm not sure…"

"Please!"

Lucy could only hold her rink mate's puppy dog eyes for three seconds before caving in. Seriously it should be illegal for a grown up man to be this cute **"** Okay fine! I guess I can stay for a few games…"

"Yessss!" Natsu ran to the game console fumbling with a few CDs lost in his own world while Lucy moved awkwardly to one of the couches trying not to regret her decision. A few games wouldn't hurt would they?

"Ah, that's right!" Natsu exclaimed as he turned sharply to the other occupant of the room "I should probably let you chose" he said as he held up several game cases that Lucy didn't recognize. "So, what do you wanna play first?"

"No, it's okay you choose. I… don't really know any of them."

Natsu looked puzzled before holding up one of the games again "Come on you don't even know Tekken?"

"Sorry, no. I haven't really played any video games." She really couldn't, not with her father thinking they were a massive waste of time.

Natsu looked at her scandalized with his mouth open wide and a hand clutching his heart. "You've seriously never played? Oh man I can't believe this we have to fix that immediately." He quickly popped a cd into the console and flopped into the couch next to Lucy.

"Prepare to be amazed, that's my favorite game of all time." He said as he handed Lucy a controller. "I won't be going easy on you just because you're a newbie you know!"

"I wasn't expecting anything less." Lucy smiled before turning back to the screen.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

"NO NO NO NO! AHH DAMN IT!"

A large K.O appeared at the TV screen and a video of the finishing blow replayed after it.

Natsu glared at Lucy through his eyelashes "You cheated!"

"Hey, I didn't cheat! It's not my fault I have natural talent!"

"You definitely lied! No way you were playing for the first time!"

"You're just grumpy because I'm better than you!" Lucy smirked.

"What? Hah, I was just going easy on you cause you were new."

"What happened to 'I won't be going easy on you just because you're a newbie you know!' " Lucy did a poor imitation of her fellow skater only to have a pillow thrown at her general direction.

"Shut up, don't get stuck in the past!"

"It was literally an hour ago."

"Shh, the past. I demand a rematch!"

"What again? This is our 10th round! Just admit I'm better than you."

"Never…" whispered Natsu in a low tone that sent Lucy into a fit of giggles.

"Seriously though, let's take a break I'm getting a bit tired"

"Fine! This isn't over!"

Natsu went to turn off the TV and console while sending her fake glares and Lucy curled up in her couch. This was surprisingly very fun. She could really get used to this she thought and a faint smile found its way to her face.

Of course she should have known better to expect a moment of calmness in this rink… To say Lucy was surprised when she felt a sudden weight in her lap would be a huge understatement. It didn't help that when her eyes immediately shot down she locked eyes with a small blue cat.

They stared at each other for less than a second before Lucy's mind processed the situation and she let out a surprised shriek startling the cat. Lucy stood up from the couch and jumped behind it in a speed she didn't know she was capable of as soon as the cat had left her lap. She didn't know if that was made clear enough but the cat was _blue_! Blue! She wasn't a cat expert but she knew that wasn't in the very least natural!

"What, what is it?" Natsu got up alarmed as he tried to locate the reason for Lucy's screams.

In response she mutely pointed to the small animal which was now looking at her almost with confusion as she tried to calm her racing heart from the surprise. The boy's eyes followed to where her finger was pointing and broke into a soft smile.

"Oh hey buddy! I didn't know you were awake."

Lucy stared in astonishment as the cat mewed at the pink haired boy and went to rub it's head in his leg as Natsu petted it softly.

"You know the cat?"

"What? Of course I should know him, it's my cat!"

Lucy continued to stare at the duo in bewilderment. "Your… cat." She said slowly.

"Ah that's right! I haven't introduced you two yet." He picked up the cat and turned to her direction. "Lucy this is Happy, Happy this is Lucy! She may seem a bit weird but you get used to her." He said stage whispering the last part.

"Hey, you- wait are pets even allowed in the building?"

Natsu theatrically gasped and pulled Happy closer to his chest "Pet! Happy's not a pet he's my friend! And he's technically allowed as long as he doesn't bother anyone."

"Technically? So he's- you know what, I don't care at this point…"

Natsu shot her a smile that slowly turned into a frown "Wait what got you scared before? Don't tell me it was Happy?"

Lucy bit her lip and looked away from the other skater.

"It was!" he said in delight "Oh man this is golden, Happy's harmless! Well unless you're a pillow he really likes to destroy those."

"Shut up I wasn't scared, I was just startled! You don't see a blue cat pop out of nowhere every day! Wait we've overlooked that for too long. Why the hell is your cat blue?"

"Ah yes…" Natsu rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly "You see he had a bit of an accident."

"Yes?" Lucy prompted him

"So I was mixing some colors to paint my room when Happy was just a kitten. When I took my eyes of him for a few minutes he managed to fall right into a full bucket of blue paint."

Lucy stared at him in disbelief "Are you kidding me, shouldn't it have come off?"

"Yeah that's the problem… you see I was kind of experimenting with some chemicals and the paint turned out to be permanent."

"Experimenting- why would you be experimenting with paint? You really shouldn't be trusted with another living being."

"Hey Happy's okay with it, right buddy?"

The cat mewed loudly as if agreeing and Lucy sighed in defeat flopping back into the couch. "Ah I give up…"

It wasn't long before she felt something bump against her leg and looked down to see the cat once again by her side. She hesitated for a second before slowly petting his head. Lucy smiled unconsciously as Happy relaxed into her hand and purred softly.

"Wow, he really likes you." Lucy turned to see Natsu looking to the scene in amusement. "It takes some time for him to warm up to strangers. It took him about a month to even sit within ten meters of Laxus. He still doesn't like him that much."

"Wait, Laxus? As in Laxus Dreyar, one of the worldwide top figure skaters?"

"Well I wouldn't call him one of the top anymore, he's retired."

"That's not the point! How do you know Laxus?"

"He's the grandson of the owner of Fairy Tail." Natsu said like it was an obvious thing.

Lucy's eyes widened "Are you serious right now?"

"Ohhh right, most people don't know that. He used to train here but then he left us to form his own little group. Said we would be holding him back. You're lucky you didn't meet him then, he was a bit of an asshole. The console is his by the way, he left it behind and we conveniently forgot to give it back."

"Wow, it's amazing!"

"Did you hear anything I said?

"Fairy Tail is so amazing!" Lucy continued unbothered "Wait do you know any of the other skaters!"

"Hmm, what do you mean?"

"I've heard about so many incredible figure skaters have their training rink in Fairy Tail! Ohhh do you know Titania? She's so cool I wanna be able to skate like her one day!"

"You won't be saying that once you meet her." Mumbled Natsu

"What?"

"Nothing nothing, I said you'll meet her soon."

"Really?" a huge smile lighted up Lucy's face. "Oh how about Fullbuster, is he still here after… you know."

"Oh the ice princess? Yeah unfortunately you'll be seeing him soon too."

"And the Salamander?"

"What?" Natsu chocked out.

"I haven't really been keeping up with men's figure skating but I heard the Salamander is in this rink? I saw his performance once and he was so cool!"

"Really, you think he's cool?"

"Of course, have you seen his skating? He's on fire every time he enters the ice!"

"Well today's your lucky day!" Natsu smirked at her.

"Hmm, what do you mean?"

"The Salamander is right here!" He spread his arms wide proudly.

Lucy's smile fell from her face. "You? You're the-"

"Yep, Natsu Dragneel, the Salamander. That's me!"

"Wait, you're a pro skater?"

"Yeah of course I am! What did you think?"

"I don't know, certainly not being a national famous skater!" Lucy exclaimed flustered "Sorry… I- uh, you weren't what I was expecting."

"Wow Lucy you really know how to talk to people. I'm not the cool guy you were expecting?" He said with a teasing smile.

"Oh my god, forget everything I said earlier." Lucy hid her now blushing face behind her hands while Natsu exploded into fits of laughter.

They ended up talking for hours from Natsu's experiences and encounters at competitions ("I swear Lucy he showed up with black eyeshadow and lipstick, he looked like a Tanuki, and danced as the evil witch putting a spell to his ex-girlfriend! I think I saw him cry on the ice…") to arguing whether vanilla or chocolate ice cream was better. Talking with Natsu was easy, it felt like they were best friends for ages and the conversation never flopped always having something to comment on.

"Hey Natsu can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, shoot."

"Why pink hair? I mean it doesn't look bad but it's an interesting choice of color."

"Ah yeah, that… You see Luce when you want to dye your hair you should always check the time limit for the dye to set in."

"No!"

"Yes! It was supposed to be red to match with my skating outfit! Gray teased me for days after that."

Lucy didn't notice how much time had passed talking until Levy called to see where she had disappeared.

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

It had been a couple of days since Gray last saw the weird blue haired woman and stopped to help her. He still has no idea why he did that. He should have just minded his own business and gone his way but no! His stupid mouth has to open up and blurt out the first thing that came to his mind. After realizing what he'd done he had pressed his lips in a tight line panicking inwardly and wished Juvia hadn't heard him. Of course luck was never on his side when it came to her.

To make things worse apparently Mira was passing by and saw the whole scene and now she wouldn't stop teasing him. As if she didn't have enough teasing material before. She never failed to inform him every time he finished his individual practice that Juvia was in the public rink and Gray always walked away silently cursing the white haired woman. It wasn't that he didn't like Juvia. Sure she was a bit weird and their first encounter wasn't exactly normal but he didn't hold anything against her. It was more that he had no idea how to act with her.

Gray was lost in his thoughts when he realized he was nearing the reception desk and quickened his pace. He wasn't in the mood for Mira's teasing remarks at the moment. However it wasn't the receptionist he found waiting.

"Gildarts?"

The man looked up from his phone and smiled at him "Hey kiddo! Long time no see! I was waiting for you."

"What do you want?" he asked suspicious.

"What I'm not allowed to miss my cute little student?"

"You literally took Natsu and I for dinner last week."

"Ah you're no fun anymore, I miss when you were all respectful to me when I first started coaching you. Tell me how are you, how the leg going?"

"Good? There's still some time before I can start official training. But you knew that already."

Gildarts hummed in agreement "Good, good… So how's Juvia doing?"

"Good-wait! How do you know about this?" Gray squinted his eyes to the other man.

"Oh, a little bird told me you were voluntary helping a sweet woman with her skating." He said grinning

"Mira…" Gray grumbled

"They grow up so fast… you already have your own student. And it's a cute girl nonetheless." He wiped a fake tear out of his eyes.

"She's not- Look I don't know what she told you but they were all lies."

"Oh so you didn't give a lesson to this Juvia girl?"

"No! Yes. That's not- Okay I did but that was a one-time thing!" he fumbled with his words. The man's grin grew out even more.

"Or go on an ice cream date with her?"

"It wasn't a date!" Gray spluttered embarrassed but the older wasn't finished.

"And you didn't go completely out of your way to give her tips?"

"What the hell, is she just giving you reports on my life now?"

"Ah so you don't deny it!" he exclaimed in triumph.

"No, I- Fine believe whatever you want I don't care! I won't be helping her anymore that was it."

"Gray I think you should be her teacher." Gildarts said in a serious tone the teasing smile having been erased and his former student looked at him in bewilderment.

"Are you joking?"

"No, I'm being completely serious. Gray I know this past few months have been difficult for you and I understand but I feel like you've been distanced from us, from your friends." Gray frowned but before he could talk back the man continued "Mira told me you've been livelier these past few days, I really think taking on that girl as a student would help you out."

"But-"

"No buts, here me out first! It wouldn't have to interfere with your own training. Just a few hours a week. You will have some social interaction and I believe teaching someone can benefit with your own skating skills."

"I don't know Gildarts I have so much going on and…"

His former coach placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder "I know kid, believe me. But I really think this can do you good, I wouldn't suggest it otherwise. Promise me you'll think about it?"

"I- yeah okay. I promise." Gray agreed reluctantly.

"Great!" the smile reappeared on his face "Now excuse me I have to go pick up my cute daughter for dinner!"

"Does Cana know about it?"

"Nope!" he said excited as he walked to the exit door "Don't forget your promise!"

Gray waved at him until the man disappeared and he dropped his hand down in defeat. What had he gotten himself into?

 **/ - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - /**

After his talk with Gildarts Gray went straight to his house the man's words circling around his head. He tried to distract himself by binge watching series but after realizing he had no idea what happened in the last three episodes because he was zoning out he gave up. He somehow managed to fall asleep without many problems and had put the whole situation in the back of his head the next morning. Well that was until later that afternoon.

"Gray~" the man in question visibly stiffened as he heard his name being called out by a certain receptionist. This wouldn't be good. Couldn't he just go home one day without any interruptions? Please?

He slowly turned around and forced a smile at his friend "Hey Mira… I was just going home." He tried dropping a hint to be left alone but obviously that wasn't in the woman's plans.

She smiled at him sweetly from behind the counter and rested her head on her clasped hands. "Can you do me a small favor?"

"Uh, sure what is it?"

"It's time to close down the rink and I have to go lock the upper floor down. Would you mind going in the main rink and seeing if anyone's still there?" she threw something at his direction that Gray caught instinctively realizing it was the rink's keys when he opened his palm "Lock it too."

"Close down?" Gray furrowed his eyebrows confused "I didn't stay that late didn't I, there's still half an hour to go."

"Ah, something came up and I have to leave, I can't just keep the place open. Now go make sure no one's getting locked inside." She smiled again and lightly pushed him to down to the direction of the main rink.

Gray adjusted the straps on his backpack and started moving eager to get done with this as soon as possible. He had a bad feeling about this. Once he reached the metal doors separating the public rink with the corridor he poked his head inside.

He was ready to shout for everyone inside to start leaving before he noticed a single figure in the middle of the ice. Gray felt his words die inside his throat. Of course. Why else would Mira make him go all this way!

Unconsciously he tried to blend in with the background and felt his gaze being drawn to the blue haired woman. She seemed to still be practicing what he had taught her and he felt a strange feeling of pride washing over him as he noticed her improvement. Oh no he was already getting into a teacher mode!

After a few more seconds of staring at her Gray snapped out of his daze remembering the reason he was sent here. Though he was pretty damn sure the reason was different than what he first thought.

"Excuse me we will be closing down now if you could please-" Gray let his sentence fade out as Juvia locked gazes with him her lips forming an O shape.

She moved her arm up and waved shyly at him from the middle of the rink. "Hello!"

"Uh, hey Juvia I didn't know you were here today… Sorry we're closing down in a few minutes."

"Oh sorry Juvia lost track of time!" she said as she skated towards the edge of the rink trying to take her skates out as soon as possible.

"Ah no you're good don't worry. We're just closing a bit sooner today."

Gray watched as the girl returned the skates to the stand and got her backpack. She stepped outside the door and Gray fumbled with the keys for a second trying to find the right one.

"So how's your practice going?" he heard himself asking before he could realize it. Stupid mouth of his…

"Oh, umm it's going good?"

"Are you asking me?" Gray said amused.

"No! It's good! It's just that Juvia can't really judge for herself."

"Yeah…Well if you practice enough you're sure to get better at it. You could get in a group too if you want to improve faster."

Juvia noticeably winced at his words "Juvia can't. She doesn't really have a lot of free time." Gray wondered if the hint of sadness in her voice was his imagination but he couldn't process it enough before she shot him a bright smile and continued "Juvia is really happy she got to have that one lesson with you! She'll be going now, it was nice seeing you again."

Suddenly all Gildarts had said passed through his mind as he looked at the blue haired woman in front of him. She seemed to genuinely enjoy skating.

"Hey are you still up for those lessons?" he asked before he could change his mind."

"What?" Juvia looked at him with wide eyes.

"You said before you wanted me to teach you, have you changed your mind?"

"NO! Of course not! But you said before-"

"Yeah, I know what I said but I thought about it. So what do you say?"

"Yes of course!" a huge smile appeared on her face "But how much should Juvia pay you?"

Gray chocked on air. He hadn't thought about that "Pay?"

"Yeah isn't that natural?"

"No nope we're not doing that. I'd feel bad taking money from you I've never taught anyone before."

"But-"

"Nope, I'm not changing my mind on this. Ah we should probably meet up and discuss this more seriously. Do you have time tomorrow?"

Juvia nodded frantically, seemingly still in shock by the whole situation.

"Okay, cool. I, uh… I'll see you on the rink tomorrow then." Gray turned on his heels and walked away as fast as he could before he could see her response. If he had stayed any longer he was sure to make a fool of himself.

He passed the reception throwing the keys into Mira's desk and bolting out of the building. It wasn't until he was lying on his couch at home when he fully realized what had happened. Surprisingly he didn't find himself regretting it.

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 **Hey guys it's been a long time! First of all we're sorry for the long wait the hiatus took way longer than I expected it but we're here now! As a disclaimer we may take long sometimes with the chapters but the story won't ever be abandoned don't worry! We hoped you enjoyed reading the new chapter we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts about it.**

 **Also thank you so much for all the wonderfull reviews you have written, they make us really happy reading them! Reading back all of your reviews gave me motivation to sit down and finish this chapter!**

 **See you next chap!**


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